Prickly pear juice

Prickly pear cactus in flower, May

This is easily the most blerghtastic thing I've made for ages. It's so pink there probably ought to be a law against it, but that's neither here nor there. However, it's also mucilaginous, a great word, so onomatopoeic, in that it sounds exactly as disgusting as it is.

But ... it tastes good, really good, even with no sugar added. (Unlike the fruit, which were also mucilaginous but bland and frankly a bit yucky.) Maybe I had the wrong kind of prickly pears. Maybe some things just taste better cooked.

Green curry salmon cakes

Serves 4 or 5 depending on appetite. Sorry no photos yet, these were made on a busy evening and I forgot. Will update next time I make them, because they were definitely good enough to make again! Prep plus cook time about 40 minutes.

Ingredients

1.5 lb fresh salmon fillet, skinned
1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander
1/4 cup fresh basil (more if it seems a bit wimpy)
1 clove chopped garlic
juice of 1 lime
2 tsp green curry paste
2 eggs
Dessicated coconut OR (GF?) panko crumbs as required ( approx 1 cup)
coconut oil for pan frying

To serve, per person:
salad greens, approx 1/2 - 1 cup
prickly pear syrup - approx 1 tsp
Hatch chile peppers, roasted and chopped into strips, approx 1 T
thick unsweetened Greek yoghurt, approx 2 T

Prep and cook

1. Slice the salmon lengthwise into thin strips, then crosswise to make small dice. Remove bones as you go. 
2. Chop the garlic and herbs finely, and add to the same board where the salmon is. Add the green curry paste and lime juice. 
3. With a broad, long, sharp, chef's knife, mix and chop the fish, herbs, and spices together. You want the aromatics evenly mixed with the fish, and also to mince up some of the fish so it will start to hold together as a very rough paste with pieces in it, rather than falling apart as individual pieces coated with herbs and spice.  
4. Once the fish mixture starts to hold together, add the eggs one by one, mixing thoroughly after each. It will get quite sloppy. I do all this on the chopping board, but you could turn it into a bowl if you want. 
5. Add coconut or crumbs to the mixture to make it firm again - if using coconut, remember it will take some time to absorb the liquid. 
6. Divide into hamburger-ish sized patties. I made 10 from this quantity, to serve 5 people as a light meal. 
7. Press more coconut or crumbs onto both surfaces of each cake. Leave to stand for ten to thirty minutes on a tray or plate in the fridge - a good opportunity to get the garnishes ready. 
8. Heat a little coconut oil in a wide pan and fry each cake until golden on both sides and firm. The exact time will vary, but about 3 or 4 minutes per side. It depends on how much oil you use as well as the heat. Start them out hot - it's better to turn them down so as not to burn, rather than to overcook them while trying to get a good colour on them. 

Plate and serve

On each plate, put a handful on greens, a blob of yoghurt, a tidy pile of chile strips. Drizzle a little prickly pear syrup around the edge. Put the hot cake(s) on the greens and serve straight away.

Hatch chiles for beginners 3: Southwestern lasagna

Southwestern lasagna

This is a seat-of-the-pants weeknight dinner, very adaptable. Adjust the quantities to taste or need.

Ingredients

• Stale corn tortillas (or I guess lasagna noodles, but it's better with tortillas)
• 2 cups meat sauce or some substitute (e.g. vege stew) flavoured with southwestern kinda spices - taco seasoning, if you must. 
• 1 - 2 cups of prepared, chopped Hatch chiles
• 1 -  1 1/2 cups enchilada sauce or, frankly, you can hack it with tomato paste and water if your meat sauce has good flavour.
• Gold flakes (that is, grated cheese) to taste

Method

Have your meat or sauce warm. Turn the oven to 350 F/180 C. To stop the dish from sticking, either spray with oil, lightly grease, or line with baking paper, a casserole or roasting dish. (or use a non-stick dish).

Put a layer of tortillas in the bottom of the dish - if they're the wrong shape, tear them. It does not need to be exact.
Then spread a thin layer of meat sauce.
Then spread a thin layer of Hatch chiles.
Optionally, scatter thin layer of grated cheese.
Repeat at least once, but twice is better. (I try to have the edges of the tortillas running different directions in different layers. No idea whether this matters. Must experiment further with this.)
Finish with a layer of tortillas.
Gently pour over the enchilada sauce so the whole top is covered and let it fall down the sides etc where it will. Top with more grated cheese. Bake about 35 minutes until hot, bubbly, and golden. The exact time will vary with the thickness. Slice and serve with a green salad and optional sour cream or guacamole.

Outdoor cooking in the southwest summer

When the desert breeze feels like a hair-dryer in your face, it's the perfect time to break out - the slow cooker?

The day has passed for this summer where we can turn the air con off for anything other than maintenance. It just stays on now 24/7 until September - or October, when the night time temperatures drop low enough for us to have windows open again.

Yes, we eat a lot more cold meals in the summer, but there's often - I'll even say usually - at least something that gets cooked. And at this time of year, every time I turn on a stove burner, part of me is offended that I'm paying to heat up the room and then paying to cool it down again. Surely we could optimise this better ... So I'm taking a leaf out of the pioneer book. They moved the cookhouse outside for the summer. While I'm not quite taking it to that extent, here are two ways I will be fighting the forces of entropy this summer.

Cook over flame outside

No brainer, right? Take it all out to the patio table and cook on a camp stove or - more obviously - a barbecue/gas grill. We recently bought a gas grill that, while it takes up a substantial proportion of the patio, includes a separate gas burner not that dissimilar to a stove-top one.

Barbecue/gas grill: This way can use more beer, but it also needs less cleanup. Definitely take the trouble to arrange shade for the cook. And at our place we need to watch the temp, as the gas bottle says not to store it hotter than 125 F. We don't usually get it out until the sun's mostly off the yard.

Camp stove/outdoor gas burner: the key here is to have everything ready. Use a tray, containers or a grocery bag to keep it all together. It might get to a point of being left to cook for a few minutes - but only a few! Be really cautious about leaving this unattended - pets, children, squirrels, flies, etc. If you're like me, even if you plan to bring everything you'll forget something. You don't want to be running back and forth into the house to fetch things. Remember utensils and a pot holder/mitt, too. It's okay to just turn the gas right off if you get called away.

Slow cooker outside

If you have outside electricity, use the slow cooker. Set it up on a table, plug it in, and run it as usual. I make sure it's in the shade, though I can offer no good reason for this. Check the food every so often as you normally would. I'm not sure why this invalidates the warranty, nor do I care. It's dry, it has a correctly installed and maintained electrical connection, I'm a do this. If you need an extension lead, use an outdoor rated one - and it need hardly be said, don't do this on wet days.

I have occasionally run the slow cooker in the garage. Where we live now, the garage faces south and it just gets too hot, but that's another possibility for hot days too, depending on your setup.

You could easily extend this concept - try the breadmaker, the rice cooker, the sandwich grill. I like the slow cooker for chili beans and other things to spoon into tortillas, but really, the sky's the limit. Al fresco waffles, anyone?

Hatch chiles for beginners 2: salsa

A lot of Hatch chile recipes seem to require advanced manual dexterity and a free afternoon (e.g. chiles rellenos - heavenly, but ain't no one got time for that). These ones - not so much. Max 15 minutes of active prep time - once you've got your chiles ready.

Having said that, none of these is a whole meal by any stretch of the imagination. (Future posts coming up will be, though, so keep an eye out.)

Salsa tends to be a chop-and-mix dish. The secret to a nice looking dish is to keep all the pieces the same size. That won't matter quite so much with a blended salsa so if you want to practice before blending it, why not.

When adjusting the ingredients to taste, I consider how it will be used on our table. Here are a few adjustments I make:

• low carb - ordinary onion bulbs have quite a bit of carb, so don't use much onion, or none. Instead, green onion/spring onion and a bit more garlic
• people who don't like things. For example, we recently had a guest who doesn't like onion. No problem - check the seasoning carefully though to make sure it's balanced. Without onion it might need a bit more chile heat, salt, or less acidity
• how much is one serving? I choose a different level of chile, salt, and acidity for by-the-teaspoon salsa compared with by-the-scoop salsa. I generally taste it. When a serving is less than a teaspoonful, taste a tiny bit on the end of a finger and you should - as my old cooking teacher said - blink both eyes and squint (not cough and gag!). It should taste a bit glaring. That flavour, once diluted and accompanying, will be correct. When a serving is half a cup, taste a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful and it should taste about right. (These are more the latter than the former.)
• what needs using up? If the coriander/cilantro is starting to wilt, I'll try and find a way to use the whole bunch rather than waste it. Yes, you can put a whole bunch, up to a cup or so, into either of the raw salsas below - add a little more lime juice to compensate and let it stand a few extra minutes to avoid that green dish-scrubber texture

A green salsa, raw or cooked

Raw

1/4 large onion or 2 - 3 spring onions/green onions
2 limes, cut for juicing
3 cloves garlic or to taste
1 cup approx Hatch chiles, peeled and seeded
4 medium tomatillos (or 3 med tomatoes, if you have to)
fresh jalapeno, finely chopped, to taste
2 - 3 T cilantro/coriander leaf, or to taste
1 t salt or to taste
pinch ground toasted cumin seed

• If using onion, start by slicing it thinly and cutting the slices into small strips. Squeeze over about half a lime and mix. Put it in one corner of the chopping board or into a 2 cup bowl.
• Smash the garlic with the side of a heavy knife and cut as finely as possible. Leave it on the board.
• Put the chiles on top of the garlic and cut into strips the same size as the onion.
• If using green onion, chop into small pieces. Keep everything the same size.
• Peel the husks from the tomatillos and rinse under hot water to remove the natural gum from the surface. Chop into small pieces. Sprinkle the salt over and mix. 
• Chop the coriander leaf finely. 
• Mix all ingredients together except limes. Juice the remaining lime over the mixture and mix to combine evenly. Check the seasoning. Serve without too much delay.

Cooked

Canned tomatillos are okay here. Don't sub with tomatoes unless they are green; red ones will spoil the colour of the finished dish.

1/4 large onion (preferably) or 2 - 3 spring onions/green onions
3 cloves garlic or to taste
fresh or pickled jalapeno, finely chopped, to taste
1 cup approx Hatch chiles, peeled and seeded
4 - 6 medium tomatillos
1 t salt or to taste
1 t ground toasted cumin seed
2 limes, cut for juicing, or a lemon, or cider vinegar, to taste

• Take everything except the limes and prepare into similar size chunks. 
• Put together in a wide pan and bring to a fast boil, stirring to prevent sticking. 
• Boil quickly until much of the liquid evaporates - again, stir as needed. 
• Remove from heat and scrape into a blender jug or bowl. Let cool according to your comfort level of blending hot things. 
• Blend until all one texture and mostly smooth (there will be tomatillo seeds.) 
• Check the seasoning, adding lime juice to sharpen the flavour.   

Will keep in fridge for ten days.

Guacamole with Hatch chiles

Okay, non-canonical ... but unlike the green pea travesty, avocado and Hatch is pretty good. You could call this an avocado dip, sauce or salsa if it's not your idea of guacamole (that which we call a rose ...) And there's another guacamole recipe here without peppers.

1/4 large onion or 2 - 3 spring onions/green onions
2 limes, cut for juicing
3 cloves garlic or to taste
fresh jalapeno, finely chopped, to taste
1/2 cup approx Hatch chiles, peeled and seeded
2 medium ripe, soft, avocados
2 - 3 T cilantro/coriander leaf or to taste
1 t salt or to taste
pinch ground toasted cumin seed

• If using onion, start by slicing it thinly and cutting the slices into small dice. Squeeze over about half a lime and mix. Put it in one corner of the chopping board or into a 2 cup bowl.
• Smash the garlic with the side of a heavy knife and cut as finely as possible. Leave it on the board.
• If using green onion, chop into small pieces. Keep everything the same size.
• Put the chiles on top of the garlic and cut into little strips or dice.
• Chop the coriander leaf finely. 
• Halve the avocado(s). Peel; remove the stone(s). Use a fork to crush them into a paste.
• Sprinkle over the salt and juice of one lime and mix all together. 
• Juice the remaining lime over the mixture and mix to combine evenly. Check the seasoning. 

Best to serve without too much delay, but will keep okay for lunch the next day. Keeps better with more lime juice rather than less.

Jubilee Close: a cherry gin cocktail

Earlier in the year Simon and I saw Jubilee on its closing night. It was a terrific night out, and we closed it with a cocktail at home on the deck. Cherries Jubilee is a classic dessert, so I wanted cherries in my commemorative cocktail. Apart from that, I just used what was in the house ...

Jubilee Close

• 2 T honey - I used this Colorado honey, with a moderately strong flavour and a floral aroma
• 4 oz Dà Mhìle* Farmhouse gin 
• 1 T sour cherry noyau
• 2 T moonshine from the cherries
• Icecubes
• 6 moonshine cherries

To garnish: twist of lime, or lemon verbena sprigs

Warm the honey; stir in the noyau, moonshine, and gin. Put a few ice cubes into cocktail glasses. Strain into glasses. Garnish with cherries and lime twist.

Sour cherry noyau

Fresh sour cherries, unpitted
Vodka to cover
Pack sour cherries into a glass jar and cover with vodka. Keep as thoroughly airtight as possible. Use sparingly after 6 months, when the almond flavour of the cherry pits will have come out into the liquid.  

*Dà Mhìle also make a stunning seaweed gin. I have an idea for a strange salty oystery limey cocktail. Just waiting until oysters are back in season!

Hatch chiles for beginners 1: prep them up

It's nearly chile season again, so the last few packages in the freezer are fair game. And since I was writing elsewhere about the happy-making experience of having Hatch chiles fresh roasted, I thought I'd also write about how to prepare and use them.

Strictly speaking it's optional to remove the seeds. I do, though, as they can taste bitter and at the best of times don't add much to a dish other than heat. To peel and seed half-thawed chiles is pretty quick once you get in the rhythm. Here are two ways.

If you're finicky about that kind of thing or if your chiles are spicy, you may like to wear gloves while you do this.

1 Under running water

Easier, but it does use a lot of water and it does also lose some of the flavour ... good for beginners, though.

• Hold the chile by the stem end with one hand. 
• Under water, pull the skin off with the other hand. 
• Use your fingers to pull the stem end off
• Split the chile lengthwise with your fingers
• Hold it by the pointy end and open it out into a wedge. Wash away the seeds, removing bits of membrane if you can without breaking the whole chile. 

2 With water at hand for rinsing

A bit messier, goes fast once you've got the knack. Basically it's a similar  process, but you're going to keep one hand clean as you only use it to hold the chile by one end. The other will get covered in blackened bits of chile skin, juices, and seeds. Dip or rinse your hand in water when it gets too grubby to do the job.

• Hold the chile by the stem end with one hand. 
• Use your other hand almost like a squeegee to scrape the skin off
• Use your fingers to pull the stem end off
• Split the chile lengthwise with your fingers
• Hold it by the pointy end and open it out into a wedge. 
• Squeegee away the seeds by running the flesh of the chile between two fingers. Pick away large bits of membrane if you can without breaking the whole chile. 

Substitutions

If you aren't fortunate enough to have these specific peppers in your area, you can use other peeled and roasted green chiles or even regular bell peppers (I'd go with red rather than green there). The flavour will be different but probably still pretty nice. Hatch chiles are a vegetable rather than a condiment, so if you're substituting some other capsicum, choose accordingly. Maybe not ghost peppers, for instance.

Coming up: Hatch chile recipes for beginners.

Salad, like jewels

Perfect for eating your colours on a hot evening or as a virtuous lunch. Goes well with steak, hard boiled eggs, or barbecued meats.

Ingredients

1 large raw beetroot, peeled and grated
1 cup finely shredded red cabbage
4 medium carrots, grated
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 T cider vinegar
1/2 tsp sambal oelek
Juice 1 1/2 limes
1/2 cup grated cheese
3 T extra virgin olive oil, or to taste
2 tsp sesame oil

Method

1. Mix together the beetroot, cabbage, carrot, pepper, vinegar, sambal oelek, and lime.
2. Add the cheese and oils, mix again.
3. Stand for ten to thirty minutes at room temperature. Serve.

Makes about 6 servings, depending on what else is on the table. Will keep up to five days in fridge, but taste and texture are better within two days.

Return of the peanut butter downfall: 3 ingredient ten minute fudge

Concrete fudge.
Looks like concrete.
Pretty sure it doesn't taste like.
But must admit have no basis for comparison.

Following on from my earlier peanut butter downfall, here is the easiest cooked fudge I've seen for ages. This is much, much too good. Sorry.

This recipe is really almost a kind of halva rather than a traditional fudge. Substitute tahini for the peanut butter to make a very respectable version of the Middle Eastern candy.

If you share my fascination with grey and black food, try it with ground black sesame seeds to make Concrete Fudge.

Peanut butter fudge

2 cups brown sugar (or white, but the extra caramel notes are terrific)
1/2 cup milk
1 cup peanut butter

Boil milk and sugar together for 2 1/2 minutes. Quickly stir in peanut butter til smooth and pour into greased pan or baking sheet.

Halvaesque

2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup tahini

Boil water and sugar together for 2 1/2 minutes. Quickly stir in tahini til smooth and pour into greased pan or baking sheet.

Optionally, stir in one or more of these after the tahini when it's nearly smooth:

• chopped pistachios
• lemon peel
• 1 tsp rosewater

Concrete Fudge

2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup water
Sesame.

For the sesame, use either but not both of these:

• 1 cup ground black sesame seeds* and 2 T sesame oil (preferably not toasted)
• 1/2 cup ground black sesame seeds and 1/2 cup tahini

Boil water and sugar together for 2 1/2 minutes. Quickly stir in sesame til smooth and pour into greased pan or baking sheet.

---

*Looking for ground black sesame seeds? Try a Chinese grocery/supermarket in the drinks section near tea, hot soy drinks, etc.

Traveller's Uncereal

For those of us who can't or won't do oats and other grains at breakfast, here are a few recipes for things you can put in a jar, chuck in the suitcase or picnic basket, and mix with yoghurt, juice, or water to make a quick, high-protein breakfast.

Each recipe makes 1/2 cup, about 2 or 3 servings. Obviously these are suggestions and can be almost endlessly substituted. I usually do better with chia than LSA, and don't like much sweetening, some people can't have nuts or pieces of seeds or don't like coconut, and some will enjoy it with honey or their diet allows dried fruit ... You can ring the changes freely on this concept. Make it your way! Here are a few ideas to get started with.

Method 

Either layer the ingredients in a 1/2 cup jar, or mix in a bowl and transfer to a container. Store cool (ish) and dry (very). (Sometimes I'll add one of those little dessicant packets from some other food package if I know it's going to be hard to keep it dry - e.g. almost anywhere in NZ.)

Peanut coconut cheer

To serve, dig out a couple of tablespoons (if you've layered it, make sure you dig through all the layers!) Mix with yoghurt or a little water or juice or milk or whatever and let stand a few minutes. Optionally, add fresh fruit. Eat.

Peanut coconut cheer

• 3 T peanut powder
• 3 T dessicated coconut or coconut threads
• 4 T chia seed

Cinnamon or chocolate almond cheer

• 4 T LSA or ground almonds
• 2 T dry toasted almonds, chopped or slivered. Or sunflower seeds
• Cinnamon (pinch or two should do it) or cocoa powder (say 1/2tsp) to taste 
• Stevia powder to taste

Seedy morning

• 2 T chia seeds
• 2 T black sesame seeds (black looks better, if you have to, use unhulled white/brown)
• 1 T sunflower seeds
• 1 T coconut threads or flakes
• 1 T pumpkin seeds

Get the most juice from a lime

Limes are different from lemons, and if you cut them straight through the middle into quarters, they are hard to juice by hand, e.g. for a cocktail or a guacamole. (Pretty slices and segments are another story. This is just for juicing.)

This is how I do it. It's kind of like rough cutting an apple into pieces around the core. I'm not a huge fan of food porn step by step photos, but this is much easier to show than to tell, so I put 3 photos below.

Full credit for this should go to something I once read on the internet. If that was yours, then a) I bow down before you and b) please let me know so I can credit you. 

Cut a lime to get the most juice

What I'm calling the 'core' is the bit between the stem and the blossom end, runs vertically down through the fruit, and is full of connective tissue and fibre.

1. Cut a slice straight through the lime but to one side of the core. Put this slice aside and continue. 
2. Take the bigger 'half' and put it cut side up. Again, cut straight down to one side of the core. You have two pieces plus the one you already set aside.
3. Take the bigger of the two pieces and yet again cut straight down to one side of the core. 

You should have 4 pieces

• 1 flat slice (from step 1)
• 2 matching-but-opposite sort of wedges
• 1 thick segment with the core

Now juice away!

step 1 

step 2

step 3

Peanut butter downfall cookies/biscuits: 3 ingredients of doom

These are cookies in the US, biscuits in NZ ...

Take two fairly healthy ingredients and with the simple addition of the White Death, make an unholy trinity of ridiculous, iniquitous deliciousness. If you find an easier recipe, for goodness sake don't tell me, I have enough trouble with these.

I think I got this recipe from my sister, else from somewhere on teh interwebs.
Do use proper peanut butter - hydrogenated vegetable oil should not be listed anywhere on the ingredients.

Flatten with a fork ... or as The Teen did, with your fingers (?!)

Easiest Ever Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 cup sugar

1. Mix all together in a bowl
2. Drop by spoonfuls onto a lined or greased pan. (Optionally, flatten with a fork etc)
3. Bake at 350 F/ 180C until firm - this depends on how big and thick they are, say 8 - 18 minutes? 

Try hard to let them cool before you eat them. Try hard to leave some for others. Good luck with that.

Turkey and avocado soup

A recipe by me. Serves 3 or 4 for lunch. Really easy, especially if made with leftovers.
I made this as a travelling lunch -  home made stock boiled down to a concentrate and made up to volume with water, and the cubed turkey and guacamole kept carefully cold. This is a hot soup.

Soup

1 cup leftover cubed turkey (or chicken, I guess)
1 litre chicken stock (or turkey, I guess)
1 cup of rough guacamole

Bring the stock to the boil. Add the turkey and bring back to the boil. Add the guacamole and heat til piping hot. Serve at once.

Rough guacamole

2 -3 cloves garlic
spring onion
fresh chile to taste
1/2 cup coriander leaf (cilantro), chopped but not too fine
2 limes
2 avocados
1 t salt

Chop the garlic finely, the spring onion in very thin rings, the chile very finely. Put the coriander on top of these and squeeze over half a lime. Halve and peel the avocados and put on top of the rest. Sprinkle the salt over. With a fork, roughly mash all together until the big lumps are gone. Squeeze over the rest of the lime juice and mix again. Serve.

Two salads

Pahranagat lake NV

Oh hi again.

Two salads, to be eaten at a picnic table overlooking a lake or under pines. These will travel well and keep well but must be kept cold.

Red ranch salad

1 large beetroot (or thereabouts)
2 medium purple sweet potatoes

For the dressing
2T of ranch seasoning
about a cup of sour cream (proper sour cream. Aim for the shortest ingredient list.)

1. Cook beetroot and purple sweet potato until tender. (Boil or microwave or bake. Beetroot is good baked.)
2. While the veges cook, make the dressing by mixing the ingredients together
3. While still warm, peel veges and cut into pieces. Mix with the dressing. If needed, thin with milk or water. 
4. Chill. Stir a few times as the veges cool so their colour bleeds into the dressing, turning it a fabulous fuchsia shade.
5. Once cold, correct the seasoning - it will likely need a little salt. 

Ranch seasoning 

Mixed the following dried herbs and spices to taste - I use about half as much dill and twice as much chives as the rest. Stores well if it gets the chance. (cool, dry, airtight unless you're lucky enough to live in the desert)
dried chopped chives
chopped dill leaf
garlic powder
onion flakes
parsley flakes
(optional, I add it later) salt

Raw Kale and Parsley Salad

Yeah I know, it sounds so healthy. But it's so delicious. The lemon juice 'cooks' it a little.

handful of kale
1/4 as much parsley as kale
juice of at least one lemon
cooked white beans about 1/2 cup (I used these beautiful tepary beans)
quarter each of a red and a yellow pepper
olive oil (don't stint!)
salt to taste

The greens 

Remove the stems from the kale
Slice the kale leaves into thin strips width-wise (chiffonade style, about 1/4 inch thick)
Chop the parsley about the same size as the kale.
Mix them together
Squeeze the lemon juice over the greens and mix thoroughly to coat. Add a little salt and mix again. you want to really rub the lemon juice in.
leave to stand in a bowl or on a board at room temperature while you do the peppers

The peppers

Two ways, pick one:
Slice super thin like a chef, by splitting it with the knife held almost parallel to the chopping board, and cut into little wisps
OR
Slice about 1/4 inch thick and quickly sauté til limp.

The mix

Mix the beans, greens and peppers together. Dress with extra virgin olive oil and mix again. Cover and chill.