Vlita (amaranth greens)
My in-law family is Greek and in the summertime we tend to go deep into the Greek kuzina. Vegetables fresh from the garden and the long hot days just call for recipes from the Mediterranean (specifically the ones from Prokopi’s Theia Kathy). When you’re in Greece, vlita is a staple on the lunch/dinner table. It’s an extremely simple dish (three ingredients!) and unremarkable in its presentation. But it beautifully rounds out all the fat and starch on the table. Plus, I hate making salad (too much washing! too much dicing!) so this dish gets me my greens with what feels like a fraction of the work. I’m sharing it with you not because it’s complicated, but because (who knew!) amaranth greens are delicious.
I grew these greens - and you can too. They are stupid easy to grow and every time you cut off the top of the plant, it comes back with avengeance.
Here’s what was in tonight’s dish:
https://www.westcoastseeds.com/products/hopi-red-dye-organic
https://www.westcoastseeds.com/products/callaloo-amaranth-seeds
You can usually find these at a Chinese market (I have yet to see amaranth greens in a big box grocery store). Sometimes it’s referred to as Chinese spinach or yin choi.
Tonight’s cooking song (staying in theme here 😆 Prokopi picked it):
Tonight’s takes:
PK: “It’s good. You just boiled some greens. It’s not a recipe. This is a one ingredient recipe, not a three ingredient recipe. You’re misrepresenting it.”
EC note: Prokopi’s comment perfectly exemplifies what it is to be married to a Greek man.
Helen: “I think it’s really good. You need to add vinegar, otherwise for me it isn’t sour enough. It kind of reminds me of Gai Lan. Also, it’s a really soft vegetable. It’s fragile and easy to bite".”
Hector: “What even is vlita? It’s way too hot. I can see. Is it hot?” Gave me a middle thumb rating (in between thumbs up and thumbs down).
What I used:
leaves from about a dozen amaranth plants
salt
red wine vinegar
olive oil
What I did:
Cut the greens!
I forgot to take a before photo. I basically loped off the top 2/3s of each of the plants. Kept the leaves and discarded the thick stems. You can cook the stems too, I just had so many leaves I didn’t use them this time.
Here’s a few photos of plants that I’ll cut later this week:
Ended up with a full basket.
Washed the greens.
Put them in a large pot. Filled with water.
Added a healthy amount of salt. Probably about 2 tsps. Turned the burner to high. Boiled for 15 minutes, uncovered.
Drained. Let it sit for a good 10-15 minutes.
Dressed with red wine vinegar and olive oil. Just drizzled over top. Often in Greece they will serve with no dressing and you dress on the table yourself.
Done!
Next time:
Add some stems - I was missing the different texture to the leaves. And if you dress the greens they don’t keep as long; so if you make a big pot (like I did), and want to serve over a few days, only dress what you’ll eat that night.
😋😋😋
-Ellisa