Fancy Pants Foodie

Foodie news, reviews and how-tos from Arkansas and beyond.

Root Café’s Award-Winning Coconut Curry Collard Greens

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Root Cafe's Coconut Curry Collard Greens

Our sampling of the glorious greens from last week’s Food Day event. (I went in for more later.)

And can I get an amen?

This holy manna makes an appearance just about every day (although sometimes in different forms, depending on what greens are available) at The Root Café in Little Rock. Even if you don’t think you like greens, you’ll probably dig these.

People dug them pretty hard at the 2012 Arkansas Cornbread Festival, where this recipe won “Best Side Dish.” And to our knowledge, the recipe hasn’t been published anywhere…until now.

Root Café owner and chef Jack Sundell prepares the restaurant's Coconut Curry Collard Greens with Dr. Meenakshi Budrahaja.

Root Café owner and chef Jack Sundell prepares the restaurant’s Coconut Curry Collard Greens with Dr. Meenakshi Budhraja.

Root Café owner and chef Jack Sundell served as a panelist on last week’s Food Day event at Pulaski Tech’s Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute, giving insight on how restaurateurs can commit to using local ingredients. (Hint: It takes a lot of planning and networking.) After the panel, Sundell made this recipe for the audience, which included culinary students, middle schoolers from Conway, and members of the local food community.

Hope you enjoy as much as we did!


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The Root Café’s Coconut Curry Collard Greens
Serves 4-6

  • 2 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 cup minced onion
  • 2 Tbsp. minced garlic
  • 1 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger
  • 1 tsp. best quality curry powder
  • 2 pounds collard greens or kale, washed and stemmed (should give you about 1 1/2 pounds ready to use)
  • 1/2 cup chicken stock
  • 1 can coconut milk
  • 1 tsp. salt and more to taste
  • Pepper to taste
  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp. fresh squeezed lime juice

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat. Sweat onions with salt until softening, about 5 minutes. Add curry powder and cook one minute, then add garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant.

Add half the greens, lower the heat a little bit, and stir occasionally until the greens have mostly wilted.  Add rest of greens, coconut milk, stock, and 1 tsp. salt, cover pot, and reduce heat.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until greens are tender, 25 – 30 minutes.  Avoid over stirring.

Remove lid and increase heat to medium-high. Cook until most liquid has evaporated and broth has thickened, about 5 minutes. Watch carefully as not to scorch the greens.  Remove pot from heat, stir in one tablespoon each olive oil and lime juice, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Coconut Lime Cupcakes

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@ang0823 @kdreep I know, more frosting... on Twitpic

I know, it wants more frosting. Next time, I'm going crazy with the piping bag.

We didn’t have any big plans for New Year’s (I know, we’re old and boring), so I decided to bake a little. Ever since Cupcake Wars on Food Network, I’ve craved some coconut lime cupcakes. OK, so I didn’t actually *see* the show…somehow I missed it…but I saw the flurry of tweets about it. Anyway.

I found a recipe on Food Network, and of course, I had to tweak it. The result is different enough that I think I’ll just rewrite it here:

Coconut Lime Cupcakes
Adapted from Food Network recipe by Jamie Nondorf, Ultimate Recipe Showdown
Makes 18ish

  • 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs, room temp
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 tsp. grated lime zest (Microplane those dudes!!!)
  • 2 T. key lime juice (bottled is OK)
  • 3T. Coco Lopez cream of coconut
  • 3/4 cup cake flour
  • 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut (optional)

Lime Buttercream Frosting

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 3 1/2-ish cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • Pinch salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 2-3 tablespoons key lime juice (bottled, again, is OK…use to taste)
  • 1/4 cup Coco Lopez cream of coconut
  • Finely grated lime zest, for garnish

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Using a stand mixer and the paddle attachment, cream the butter until it’s light and fluffy, a couple minutes on high. Add the sugar and continue until they’re well combined. Turn down to medium speed and add the eggs, vanilla, zest, juice, and cream of coconut; blend until combined. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. (If the kosher salt doesn’t go through your sifter, just make sure all the other stuff has gone through and dump it into the bowl.) Alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk into the mixer, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. I’m making the actual coconut optional, since many folks find the stringy shards offensive but like the flavor. But if you like it (and I do), fold it gently into the mixture at this point.

Tip: If you don’t normally keep buttermilk on hand and don’t feel like buying it just for 1/2 cup in this recipe, do what I did….make your own! Measure some regular milk (2% or whole is fine) just shy of 1/2 cup, and add a tablespoon or so of lime or lemon juice. Stir it up and let it sit out at room temp for 15-30 minutes. (Hope you read this part ahead of time!) 😉 It will curdle and turn into an instant, fabulously usable buttermilk.

Line your cupcake/muffin tin with paper liners, and scoop about 1/4 cup into each one, or until they’re almost to the top, as they don’t puff up a whole lot. Bake at 325 degrees for about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the buttercream frosting. I changed this pretty significantly from the original to be more tart and, well, fattening with the addition of more Lopez. Trust me, you’ll forgive me.

Wash your mixer bowl and paddle attachment (sigh), unless you’re a foodie goddess or something and have an extra set. Cream the butter until fluffy, and sift in the powdered sugar about a cup at a time. As you get close to the final 1/2 cup or so, check for the consistency you want…depending on your preferences, the humidity, how you’re holding your toes, etc. the amount of sugar will vary. When it looks right, add the vanilla, lime juice and cream of coconut. I like things really tart, so I opted for the higher amount of lime juice. Adjust as you wish.

When the cupcakes are done, cool them in the pan for a few minutes, then completely cool on a wire rack. Then (and only then) you can spread on the buttercream. You might notice in my very poor quality photo that I didn’t wait, and the warm cake melted the frosting a bit. I didn’t really care at that point.

Sprinkle on some zest, and you’re ready for some really awesome ‘cakes!

My next cupcake adventure will probably be salted caramel. I’m seeing a lot of great recipes for these. I’ll keep you posted.

Oh yeah, I’m supposed to be losing weight for the new year. Whatever.