“Salt is your friend.”

Wise words spoken by Shenarri “Greens” Freeman, Executive Chef of acclaimed in Manhattan’s East Village, during her demonstration at ICE’s New York campus.

A Richmond, Virginia native, Chef Shenarri, a graduate of ICE’s Health-Supportive Culinary Arts program, has been in the hospitality industry for a decade, first working in various restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area before coming to New York.

At Cadence, “Executive Chef Shenarri Freeman tapes into her Virginia upbringing and vegan ethos and spotlights Southern footways and soul food through the lens of health and sustainability,” per the restaurant’s website. Current menu items include fried okra with special sauce, collard green wraps with succotash and chickpea miso broth, black eyed pea garlic pancakes and smoked grits with fried oyster mushrooms.

Since its opening in March 2021, Cadence has . Chef Shenarri was even chosen as a in 2022, less than two years after graduating from ICE.

For Chef Shenarri, creating a restaurant like Cadence was always going to be a personal journey.

“The vision was to cook Southern and soul food that was vegan,” she says. “I thought it was very interesting it’s also my background. I went plant-based in eight years ago [and] I wanted to cook food that I enjoy. I didn’t see any other restaurants in New York doing what my vision was. It was a great time to introduce my food to the city. I think people like it.”

At ICE, Chef Shenarri served up one of her favorites to students: stuffed collard greens with poached pears.

Check out the full demo on our YouTube Channel and the recipe below.

Ingredients

For the Maple Balsamic Jus

1 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

For the Poached Pears:

5 cups apple juice
2 tablespoons ginger
1 tablespoon ground cardamom
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
3 pears, peeled, halved and destemmed

For the Collard Greens and Assembly:

1/2 bunch collard greens, washed and destemmed
2 cups vegetable broth
2 tablespoons chickpea miso
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into medium dice
1 cup shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1/2 yellow onion, cut into medium dice
1 tablespoon ground Aleppo chile pepper

Directions

For the Maple Balsamic Jus

Bring maple syrup and balsamic vinegar to a boil for 2-5 minutes, whisk and set aside.

For the Poached Pears:

In a large pot, bring apple juice, ginger, cardamon and cinnamon to a boil. Add in pears, boil for 15-20 minutes. Remove pears and set aside to cool.
Reduce remaining juice down to a reduction sauce.

For the Collards:

Blanch collard greens in a vegetable broth with chickpea miso and salt. Cook for 6-8 minutes or until collards are tender; remove and set aside.
In a medium-sized pot, sauté onions and peppers until translucent. Add mushrooms, leeks and Aleppo. Cook for additional 6-8 minutes and set aside.
Lay out collard greens and place a spoonful of filling in to the center. Roll the collard green like a burrito and repeat until all wraps are done.
Plate on top of poached pears. Finish with maple balsamic dressing.

Abbe Lewis

Abbe Lewis is a writer, editor, Emmy nominee and extreme nacho enthusiast with over a decade of experience in food and beverage media. Always on the move, Abbe can be found running long distances on the weekends to new restaurants or her favorite hangouts.