These Simply Buttered Spring Greens are a wonderful side dish and a nice change from your standard green cabbage varieties. They’re flavoursome, quick to cook and economical to buy so if you haven’t tried them yet, this is your sign!
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I find that search engines can become a little confused between the concept of seasonal spring green vegetables cooked in a medley and this specific plant called spring greens. I get the problem, I’ve used the terms spring greens to refer to both myself. But for the purposes of this post we’re simply talking about the spring green variety of the cabbage/cauliflower/broccoli/kale family of brassicas.
Like it’s closest sibling kale, spring greens just grow large leaves and don’t form a close head of leaves like a savoy or sweetheart cabbage.
They’re also the closest options to collard greens or mustard greens which are perennially popular in the southern US and various other cultures around the world. If you were looking to emulate a collard greens recipe, spring greens would be the best option to use even though the flavour is a little more subtle and less bitter.
How to Serve Simple Spring Greens
I serve boiled spring greens as an easy side with roast dinners and many other “gravy dinners” like bangers and mash or simple meals like pork chops and roasted baby potatoes.
Try mixing and matching with my other roast dinner recipes – you can find them all in the post below – don’t be put off if it isn’t Christmas for what is Christmas dinner if not just a brilliant roast!
Christmas Feast: Menu & Recipes
Here you’ll find all of my recipes for the main Christmas Dinner event. There are air fried, oven cooked and stovetop recipes and everything from main event turkey recipes, to Christmas dinner side dishes with all the trimmings, sauces and classic puddings, plus a few alternative options and of course bonus mince pies.
Don’t miss the pigs in blankets, homemade paxo stuffing or packet stuffing balls with added sausage. It would be a travesty to not include simple sprouts. mashed carrot and swede, the best roast parsnips and crispy roast potatoes amongst lots of other delights. Round the meal off with bread and cranberry sauces then end with a classic sherry trifle or mix things up with my microwave mincemeat sponge and custard.
Buttered Spring Greens Ingredients
Spring Greens
Spring greens are readily available in UK supermarkets, especially in the autumn and winter when they’re at their best. You can buy them as whole heads of leaves or pre sliced.
I don’t like buying the pre sliced option (same as with kale) as they don’t take out the thick and difficult to eat centre stalk from the leaves – they cut right across it. So if you can, I would recommend buying the whole leaves and spending the extra couple of minutes preparing them yourself. I’ve detailed how best and easiest to do this in the main recipe.
Butter
Technically you can just boil the spring greens, drain them and serve. But I love to add a little salted butter. I do tend to reach for the proper block butter or even my own homemade butter when I have some to hand.
But if you generally use a spreadable butter or buttery spread and enjoy the flavour then you can use this as an alternative.
Be Flexible
You can use this as a base recipe and add other flavours if you wish. To make things easy you could start by using a flavoured butter – garlic butter is of course the most obvious and classic.
You can also take some flavour cues from how collard greens are often cooked – with bacon drippings and/or a ham bone. The easiest way to achieve this would be to air fry some bacon until crisp then cut it into small pieces and stir them into the drained spring greens along with the drippings from the pan.
Or you can use the water from cooking a ham/gammon joint in place of the water to boil the greens. This is actually one of my favourite ways to cook greens and carrots alike.
Vegetarian or Vegan Spring Greens
Providing you ignore all my suggestions above for adding bacon to the greens, this recipe is suitable for vegetarians as written. To make buttered spring greens vegan you will need to use a dairy free butter substitute. Or use another fat like olive oil if you prefer.
Make Allergy Friendly Boiled Spring Greens
This recipe is free from egg, gluten and nuts.
Dairy Free: To make this recipe dairy free, simply switch the butter for a dairy free alternative.
Please note that this recipe may contain other allergens not referred to above and any variations suggested have not been tested unless otherwise stated. For more information regarding any dietary information provided on this website, please refer to my Nutritional Disclaimer.
Get Ahead
I wouldn’t recommend cooking the greens in advance if you can help it. But you can absolutely do all the preparation and let the leaves sit in a bowl or the pan full of cold water. You can do this a good 24 hours ahead of time and this is exactly what I tend to do when cooking larger meals – especially for Christmas Day etc.
Don’t add any salt and I would recommend draining the water and adding boiling water from the kettle when you want to start cooking.
Leftover Spring Greens
Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for several days. They do tend to be on the soggier side when you reheat them – personally I don’t mind them like this but it is worth bearing in mind.
Any leftover greens and vegetables can be added to any leftover potatoes and fried to make a hash or bubble and squeak. They can also be added to soups or sauteed and used as a side with another meal, etc.
Buttered Spring Greens Tips
I’ve included instructions for removing the thick stalks from the leaves and discarding them. They are edible however so if you want to utilise them, slice them thin and either start boiling them 10 minutes before adding the leaves. Or saute them in a pan with butter for a different texture.
Make sure to drain the leaves well after cooking. Allow them to sit and steam dry for a couple of minutes. There will still be a little water remaining that the butter will emulsify with. But you want the butter to coat the spring greens, not create a thin sauce.
Don’t forget to let me know in the comments if you try making this recipe – I want to know what you think and if you made any substitutions, how did it turn out?
Still Have Questions?
Simple! Just contact me and I will do my best to help as quickly as I am able. Head over to my Contact Me page, any of my social media channels or post a comment at the bottom of this page and I’ll see what I can do.
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More Simple Vegetable Recipes
The Recipe
Simply Buttered Spring Greens Recipe
Ingredients
- 650 g Spring Greens
- 2 tsp Fine Salt
- 30 g Salted Butter
- ½ tsp Sea Salt Flakes
Instructions
- Put a full kettle of water on to boil.
- Prepare roughly 650g Spring Greens by slicing off the bottom of the stalk and removing any dark outer leaves. Cutting the stalk first will make this easier and some will fall right off.
- Use a sharp knife and a V shaped cut to remove the stalk from each of the big leaves. Discard the stalk as is too thick to cook properly along with the rest of the greens.
- Pile up the halved leaves and cut into thick slices. Put the slices into a large saucepan.
- Take the more tightly wrapped inner part of the greens and cut each in half lengthwise and straight through the stalk. Cut a wedge out of each half to remove the bulk of the stalk.
- Cut the remaining greens into thick slices, a similar size to the outer leaves.
- Add to the large pan with the rest of the sliced leaves.
- Cover with the boiling water and add 2 tsp Fine Salt to the pan. If you need to boil more water, you can do this after you get the greens onto the heat in order to save time.
- Put the pan on a high heat until the water is boiling. Using a lid will speed up the process. Boil for around 10 minutes until the greens are cooked to your liking.
- Drain the water from the spring greens. Use the pan lid or a colander as preferred but do return the cabbage to the pan once drained.
- Add 30g Salted Butter and ½ tsp Sea Salt Flakes to the pan. Stir gently and the butter will melt and emulsify with any water droplets still on the greens.
- Serve with extra butter if desired.
Sisley says
A classic and this recipe always works for us. Thank you
Lesley says
I really enjoyed this recipe as I far prefer spring greens to regular cabbage, they’ve more flavour.
Cat says
A very tasty alternative to the usual cabbage I cook. I’ll be adding it to my repertoire!