Stir-Fried Brown Rice with Salad Greens

In my ongoing efforts to like salad, I started thinking about other ways I could use salad greens. Everyone always has them raw, but what if I tried cooking them? There are many salad greens that do double-duty as cooked greens and raw greens (spinach, arugula, escarole and radicchio all come to mind) so why stop there? I've heard of wilted lettuce before so I decided to turn my spring salad mix into a stir-fry.

This was honestly one of the easiest and most successful dishes I've ever made. A (mostly) vegetarian friend stopped by last night and, since I can't resist feeding people, he happily stayed for dinner. And he couldn't stop raving about the stir-fry! The vegetarian's only complaint? That I didn't make enough. So, if you're feeding more than two, make extra!

To preserve the "salad" feel of the greens, I stir-fried them in olive oil along with 4 cloves of garlic (to add some heat). Make sure you have everything prepped and your rice cooked and cooled (you can even be lazy and buy already-cooked brown rice) before you start. We enjoyed it with Mixed Green Salad with Pecans, Goat Cheese, and Honey Mustard Vinaigrette, as well as a bottle of Vinho Verde. Bon appetit!

Stir-Fried Brown Rice with Salad Greens
adapted from Food.com
Serves 2 as a main dish, 4 as a side

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups salad greens, packed
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup vinho verde
• 2 ribs celery, diagonally sliced
• 10 cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 3 cups brown rice, cooked and cooled
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce

Heat wok over high heat until smoking. Swirl in olive oil. Add greens and garlic and stir-fry for 2 minutes.

Remove greens and garlic to a bowl. Without cleaning out the wok (or removing it from the heat), add vinho verde, celery and mushrooms. Stir-fry 3 minutes.

Add rice, green onions and greens and garlic. Stir-fry until everything is heated through, breaking up the rice with your spatula if it's clumping together. Drizzle with soy sauce. Serve immediately.

Links to other salad green delicacies:

• Asian Greens Salad from From Scratch Club
• Orange, Walnut, Gorgonzola and Mixed Greens Salad with Grilled Chicken from Pasta Princess & More
• Grilled Bitter Greens Salad with Roasted Beets, Spiced Pecans and Roquefort from The Kitchn
• Roasted Greens Salad with Balsamic Drizzle from Eighty Twenty
• Warm Broccoli and Baby Greens Salad from the rebel grrl kitchen