Bitter greens are nutritious and can balance out a meal with their, well, bitter flavor. They’re nutritious—almost too nutritious. If you’ve ever gnawed on a woody stalk of kale and imagined yourself grazing in a field, you know what I mean. The tough base of the stalk can go down the drain, and there are two easy ways to do it without losing your mind.

When dealing with a woody stem, such as kale, mustard, collard greens, and sometimes even mature spinach leaves, you want to remove the tough midrib, but not too much of the tender leaf.

Do this by laying the leaf as flat as possible to expose the center stem. As the stem rises, it shrinks in size and becomes more tender, as do the other smaller veins in the leaf. Identify where the center rib becomes small enough to match the size of the other several veins in the leaf. This is where you will begin your cut. Place the tip of the knife here and cut through, along one side of the rib. Repeat the cut on the other side. You will now have the tender leaf and the peak of a stem, which you can discard or compost.

To destem multiple leaves at once, simply stack three or four leaves on top of each other and cut out the "stem." You can then fold the leaves for a chiffonade cut, a rough chop, or leave them whole as a wrapping for meat or other vegetables.