Recipe w/ bitter greens

Bitter green salad w/ warm basil vinagrette

Ingredients: frisee, radicchio, dandelion, sorrel - or any other bitter green, basil, vinegar, shallot, olive oil, honey, salt, blue cheese (optional), bacon (optional)

Preparing: Chop the bitter greens into rather small pieces. Slice a shallot thinly and chiffonade some basil leaves. Warm some vinegar (white balsamic, balsamic, cider) on the stovetop in a small saucepan and add the shallot. Cook until softened. Whisk in some honey and salt and throw in the basil leaves. Once the vinegar is barely simmering, whisk in olive oil (use more olive oil than vinegar, by volume) and heat until just warm. Pour the warm vinaigrette over your prepared greens and mix gently.

Eating: Top these greens with blue cheese, or maybe feta or goat cheese, some crispy bacon pieces and some more torn basil leaves.

Dish history: Bitter greens are really bitter! But they are the healthiest for you. So softening them up with a warm dressing helps cut the bite and you still get the benefits of eating raw greens.