Curried Shells with Collard Greens & Tofu

Cooking with Collard Greens

The other day I made a huge mistake.  As I was running around the grocery store like a headless chicken during lunch, what I thought was kale turned out to be “New England Collard Greens.”  By the time I realized the tightly wrapped bunch with gigantic leaves wasn’t kale, I was already paying at checkout and was too lazy to switch.  Yea it looked a bit funny but I figured non-organic kale is just bigger and less pretty.  Rookie mistake.

I took it home and the bunch of greens haunted me every time I opened my fridge, mocking me as I had no idea what to do with them.  When I think of collard greens, I think of bacon and butter and other southern grease that I have no desire to leap into after a day of work.

Finally, after getting sick of staring at it, I decided to throw it into my wok.  Add a curry paste and two cups of water and simmer for about 25 minutes after the water reached boiling.   I tried a taste of it after 10 minutes and unlike kale, it still tasted bitter and harsh; so I kept simmering away.  After 25 minutes I added some cooked pasta shells and tofu cubes for another 10 minutes of simmering action.  
The end result if you love curry ended up being delicious.  I now have a healthy vegan lunch for 4 days.  Here are the ingredients I used:

• 1/3 Box of Wholewheat pasta shells (you could use rice but I was craving me some shells)
• 1 Packet of Kitchens Of India Curry Paste with 2 cups of water
• Frank’s hot sauce because curry alone isn’t enough spice for me
• A giant bunch of collard greens
• One box of firm cubed tofu

And the best part? I learned that if I have the patience (35 minutes vs 10 minutes with kale) collard greens are really not that intimidating and can be quite delicious with a simmering sauce!.