Love on those mustard greens

For those of you who planted mustard seed this winter, good on you. And good on your garden.

It's good, is what I'm saying.

While it's busy fumigating the soil (really, it does this), you can eat it and imagine it fumigating your innards, too.

Does that sound bad? It's not. It's actually good. Mustard greens have cancer-fighting and cholesterol-lowering properties.

See - that sounds good. No one likes cancer anyway. It's a total jerk.

But do mustard greens taste good? We're not in the business of eating stuff *just* for our health, here.

Thankfully, it's quite good. And flexible - eat mustard greens as spicy sprouts, fresh salad greens or sauteed with ham steak and winter squash.

In case that last one got a raised eyebrow, here's a recipe we cook up often over the winter in order to keep the mustard cover in check and, you know, accompany a nice bottle of chilled Chardonnay.

Ham Steaks with Winter Vegetables

Serves 2
Ingredients
2 ham steaks, trimmed and cubed
1 Delicata squash, peeled, cored and sliced into 1" rings
1 bunch of mustard greens, rinsed and roughly chopped
2 T olive oil
Sea salt, pepper

To make
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Cover a rimmed baking sheet with foil and add a bit of olive oil. Distribute your squash rings on the oiled foil (you know that rhymes, right?) and coat with a bit more olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Roast in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until the squash is lightly browned and soft.

In a large skillet, brown your ham steak cubes over medium-high heat until brown on all sides. Your house will start to smell reminiscent of bacon and this is just a side benefit to making this meal. Enjoy that.

When your ham steak cubes are browned on all sides, add the mustard greens and saute with the ham until wilted.

Serve the ham and mustard saute with the squash and, of course, that chilled wine we were talking about before.

Let the fumigation begin.