• 1 large package cooking spinach (twice as large as a bag of salad spinach)
• 1 bunch kale
• 1 bunch mustard greens
• 3 strips bacon
• 1-4 Tablespoons butter
• 1 Tablespoon minced garlic or fresh garlic paste
• 1/2 or 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

The morning before cooking, unwrap the bundles of kale and mustard greens and run them through your washing machine with no soap.  Use a brief cycle and cold temperature.  This removes all sand and grit and breaks up the leaves into bite sized pieces, plus separated the tough stems.

Discard stems.

Mix the spinach and greens and refrigerate until 20 minutes before the meal.  In a very large non-stick skillet, fry the bacon until crisp and remove to a plate an turn off the heat under the skillet.  Vegetarians can substitute 3 Tablespoons butter for the 3 strips of bacon.

If you have a way to safely reserve some of the hot bacon grease for later use, pour off half of it.  If not, just use butter for the grease.

Reheat the skillet on medium high heat (8 on a scale of 0-10) and fry half the garlic for 30 seconds then add 1/2 or 1/3 of the combined spinach and greens to the pan.  Pan fry for 3-5 minutes, using either wooden spoons or tongs to toss the greens inside the skillet so that all of them receive heat.  Remove pan fried greens to a large bowl.

Add rest of the bacon grease back to the skillet, or add 2 Tablespoons butter if you are out of grease.  Melt the butter, fry the rest of the garlic for 30 seconds and add the next batch of greens and spinach.  Pan fry for 3-5 minutes and remove greens to the same bowl.

If you have any greens and spinach left, melt the last of the butter and pan fry for 3 minutes.  Add the greens and spinach to those in the bowl, sprinkle salt and pepper over greens and and toss to combine all the batches of fried greens with seasonings.

Crumble bacon strips and scatter over greens.

Serve hot accompanied by a jar of picante sauce or peppers-in-vinegar sauce for added spice.

 

Serves 8 people as a side dish.