Festive Kale

I tried a different approach to making my greens this Christmas by baking the garlic in oil separately and adding it to the greens after both were cooked. Here's what I did:

I rinsed three bunches of kale in a tub of water in the sink, and then chopped them on my cutting board. I loaded the greens into my big stock pot and steamed them in some leftover vegetable stock and water. At the same time my oven was up to 350 degrees so I peeled a whole bulbs worth of garlic cloves and halved and cored them and dropped them into my Pyrex measuring cup. Then I added olive oil to cover the cloves and I added red chili flakes and baked it. When the greens were done the oil baked garlic was also golden and crispy. I fished out the greens from the remaining stock and put them into another pot (I saved the stock). Then I poured the baked olive oil garlic red chili flakes mixture over the greens and added more olive oil. I shook a bunch of kosher salt on the whole mess and started adding some sweetness. I added dried sweetened cranberries and raisins, then I decided yellow would be a cheerful addition so I added a bunch of frozen corn. I tasted it and added more salt. Then I heated the greens mixture up to serving temperature.

You can use sugar or wine to sweeten if you don't feel like using raisins and cranberries. The salt-sweet-oil triad supports the greens, and the red pepper is a fun kick. You can also add roasted almonds in place of corn.