Recipe: Italian Mustard Greens to beat congestion

At my great new local market (at polk and california), mustard greens were the only dark leafy organic green they had, so in my basket they went. I don't buy them often because they have such a strong flavor and cleansing action (not ideal for vata and pitta), but once in a while they're great for variety. As I was looking for inspiration for how to prepare them, I found many recipes for mustard greens with bacon. Hmmm, not exactly my style (being a vegetarian and all), but I thought the saltiness of the bacon would be a good fit for the bitter & pungent qualities of the greens. And suddenly a vision of delicious herb & oil-cured black olives popped into my head! Salty and delicious: they'd be perfect! 

What I didn't realize is that these were incredibly well suited to my post-cold care as well! 

(I had three days of it last weekend, but kicked it with copious amounts of ginger and garlic and this.) 

Read on to learn more:

"Mustard Greens: warming thermal nature; pungent flavor; influences lungs; tonifies and moistens the intestines; clears chest congestion; improves energy circulation and dissovles stagnant or congealed blood...Reduces...mucus that is clear or white and copious...associated with lung infections. For colds and coughs, use mustard greens in tea. Caution: Not for those with inflamed eye diseases, hemorrhoids, or other heat [Pitta] signs." 

(Paul Pitchford of Healing with Whole Foods)

"In traditional herbal medicine practices, preparations from olives and olive leaves have often been used in treatment of inflammatory problems, including allergy-related inflammation...Olive extracts have now been shown to function as anti-histamines at a cellular level. By blocking special histamine receptors (called H1 receptors), unique components in olive extracts may help to lessen a cell's histamine response. Because histamine is a molecule that can get overproduced in allergy-related conditions and can be a key player in the inflammatory process, it's likely that the anti-inflammatory benefits we get from olives involve this anti-histamine pathway. It's also possible that olives may have a special role to play as part of an overall anti-allergenic diet." 

(whfoods.com)

This was so tasty and I highly recommend trying it if you haven't found a way to like mustard greens yet; enjoy!

ITALIAN MUSTARD GREENS

Serves 1. 

1/2 - 1 t ghee

3 leaves of mustard greens, stalks removed and torn/cut into bite size pieces

5 cured black olives with Italian seasoning

balsamic vinegar

freshly cracked black pepper

In a hot pan, melt the ghee then add the greens. Saute for 4 minutes or so until greens just start to wilt. Add olives and stir until the olives are warm- about another minute or two. Turn off heat. Lightly drizzle balsamic vinegar over the greens and add pepper to taste then toss. Serve immediately.

• Vata: Enjoy on occasion. Use 1 t ghee. Best to split the recipe in half and use to top a minestrone soup or similar. 
• Pitta: Not recommended. Would be ok if substituting kale for mustard greens and reducing vinegar and pepper to minimal amounts. 
• Kapha: Good. Use 1/2 t ghee. Use three olives instead of five.