Couve Mineira (Brazilian Garlicky Collard Greens)

For our Brazilian Carnival dinner, I prepared the following recipe to share. Because Brazilian cuisine can often be very heavy on meats, I wanted to make sure we had some vegetables and greens on the table. This is a traditional vegetable side dish to enjoy with feijoada (a traditional black bean stew) during Carnivale.

Couve Mineira (Brazilian Garlicky Collard Greens)
recipe from DonaBrasil

• 1 pound of collard greens, kale or Savoy cabbage
• 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil or olive oil
• garlic to taste
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste

Wash and drain the kale or the collard greens. Remove the hard stems of the kale. Roll the leaves tightly together and slice into very thin shreds. As the shreds have to be very thin, the knife has to be sharp.

Sauté the garlic, the salt and the pepper in the oil (some people add a small union at this step). Stir-fry the shredded leaves quickly at high heat. It is important that you stop in time: the leaves have to wilt slightly but should keep their bright color.