Legit Southern Style Collard Greens

     

Brassica Oleracea, where have you been all my life?

     I'm gonna follow up that Soul Veg post with a collards recipe from some good friends in Greensboro, North Carolina because face it - it's the only move I have in that department. This one is for my boys in Low Sky and Torch Runner, who showed me how it's done.

     Collards have a really distinct taste, I definitely got hooked on them hard after this recipe. And once you get the hang, you can riff on this with any kind of leafy greens (beet greens work great too).

What You Need: greens, ham hocks, a pound of lard - SIKE! No. You need: Collard Greens, Onion, Garlic, Braggs, Cholula Hot Sauce, Earth Balance and black pepper.

     Get a medium pot. Dice an onion and some garlic (1-2 cloves) with Earth Balance (or whatever you use for oil) in the bottom of the pot and fry it, adding some Braggs and a few dashes of the Cholula (this is the crucial secret ingredient. It's vegan and in most supermarkets, usually with Mexican foods). Rinse and cut the ends off the stalks. Put the lid on that sucker. While it's frying, cut the collards into strips (personally I just grab the whole thing and just chop it all, including the stalks - there's tons of fiber in there). Your onions/garlic should be pretty fried by now. If it's too dry add some more Braggs. Add the collards, stir it all up, turn it down (to medium or lower) and let it simmer. The greens will absorb all the rest and shrink down like when you braise kale. This part doesn't take too long. Once they're soft, its your party. Add black pepper. It should be salty from the Braggs. You can play around with the amount of hot sauce you like, and how much or little oil/margarine you want to reach the desired greasiness. 

-CC

Collards served with homemade yam fries, onion rings and falafel and miso gravy.

*Good Stuff: Collards are high in vitamin C & soluble fiber and are positively lousy with the potent anti-cancerous nutrients Diindolylmethane and Sulforaphane. I know, right? You were thinking "but do they have any Diindolylmethane or Sulforaphane?" Gotcha covered, dawgs.