Eastern European kitchens know exactly how to make the most of the long winters. Root vegetables and winter greens are dietary staples, as is sausage. We’ve paired them to create a rib-sticking Polish Sausage and Boiled Winter Greens supper. We snatched up a lovely bunch of deep green kale from Farming Engineers Organic Produce. It tends to sell out quickly, but luckily we have a number of produce vendors at Saturday market. We decided to couple the kale with cabbage from Johnnie Raber’s Family Farm. Mixing your greens is an old Southern secret that creates a more diversified flavor and appearance. (Collards, turnip, spinach, and/or mustard can also be used.) There’s a wide range of sausage makers trying their hand at different meats and spice/herb blends, but for this dish we went straight Polish Sausage from Simpson’s Farms out of Martinsville, IN.
Ingredients
• Bunch of deep green kale from Farming Engineers Organic Produce.
• Cabbage from Johnnie Raber’s Family Farm
• Polish Sausage from Simpson’s Farms
• BOOYAH! Shrubs shrub spice
• Hiwa Kai (Black Sea Salt) and Organic Minced Onion from Redwine Farms’
• Classic Sweet Dijon dressing from Brick House
• Milk Thistle Golden Beet Kvass from pH3rment
Instructions
1. Shred your kale and half (or all) of your cabbage into half-inch strips and place in a large pot. Cover with water. A splash of sunflower oil adds a nice “buttery” taste. Salt and pepper rather generously. Cover and bring to a slow boil on medium to medium high heat.
2. Place the sausages in, preferably, an iron skillet and cover half-way with water. Cook on medium to medium low heat, turning every 5-10 minutes until the water is nearly gone.
3. To enhance flavor and tenderness, add a bottle of BOOYAH! Shrubs shrub spice – they’re happy to assist in recommending one from their large range of fruit-herb-spice-botanical-vegetable infused apple cider vinegar blends.
4. Lower the heat and allow to simmer another 10 or so minutes.
5. When the greens are cooked to your desired “softness,” drain and plate a generous helping. For flavor, color accent and texture, we selected Redwine Farms’ Hiwa Kai (Black Sea Salt) and Organic Minced Onion for seasoning, but impulsively decided to first to drizzle the boiled winter greens with a bit of Brick House’s Classic Sweet Dijon dressing.
6. Place the sausages atop and serve with an array of “dippers” such as horseradish or wasabi for heat, any of the many exciting mustards available, or our old favorite Batch No. 2 ketchup.
And because we (again) promised ourselves we’d be better to our body temple, we decided to regimen a daily cleanse, selecting a bottle of pH3rment Milk Thistle Golden Beet Kvass to get us started! Resolve to do one shot a day and your body will thank you!
