Southern Collard Greens
I’m on a real Southern cooking kick right now. After whipping up my Southern-style Cast Iron Skillet Corn Bread (recipe coming soon) I decided I really needed to make it a full meal of Southern delicacies. And, naturally, I had to start with the most Southern of all vegetable dishes, collard greens.
Now, if you’re from up north, it’s possible you’ve never even seen this veggie before, so let me fill you in. Collards are a leafy green vegetable from the same family as kale. Because they’re somewhat bitter, Southern cooks traditionally boil them with smoked meat and other seasonings like onion, vinegar, pepper, and just a bit of sugar. By the time you’ve piled all that flavor into the dish, the bitterness is barely noticeable.
My version of Southern Collard Greens uses bacon, apple cider vinegar, and crushed red pepper. To soften up those tough greens and fill them with flavor, I boil them for a good 30 to 40 minutes in a pot with bacon, onion, and seasonings. Then, to finish them off, I cook up some more bacon and crumble it on top for a texture contrast.
Are collard green healthy?
- You bet! They’re rich in vitamin A, vitamin C, and manganese, and absolutely packed with vitamin K. One bowl meets more than three times your daily need for this vitamin! And they’re low in fat and calories, too – well, at least before you add all the bacon.
My store doesn’t carry collard greens. Can I use another type of greens instead?
- You can substitute any dark, leafy green vegetable, such as chard, spinach, mustard greens, turnip greens, or the ever-popular kale. (You can find that everywhere these days.) In fact, Southerners often make a dish called mixed greens that combines collards with one or more of these others.
Can you make these collard greens vegetarian?
- Not if you want them to be authentic. The smoked meat (bacon, ham hocks, smoked turkey drumsticks, or pork or turkey necks) is really an essential part of the dish. Now, if you’re willing to fudge a little bit, you can leave out the meat and add a teaspoon of smoked salt to provide that smoky flavor, but you won’t have the chewy texture that the meat adds. It’s just not quite the same.
Southern Collard Greens
- Rinse collards under cool water. Remove any yellow or bruised leaves. To trim the leaves, slice the leaf down the middle along the center stem on both sides, removing the center stem.
- Take the two halves and lay them on top of each other creating a pile. Then you will slice them into strips.
- Chop your onion and your bacon. Begin cooking them in your pot to soften your onion and release some of the bacon grease as you partially cook your bacon. This will take about 5-7 minutes.
- Once your onions are softened, add your sliced collards, vinegar, broth, sugar, red pepper flakes and salt and pepper to your pot. Stir. Place your lid on your pot and bring to a boil.
- Boil for 30-40 minutes till your collards are the desired consistency. You want them to be soft but not mushy.
Cook the 3 additional pieces of bacon and crumble them. When you are ready to serve your collards, top with the crumbled bacon.
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Southern Collard Greens
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Ingredients
- 1 large bunch of collards rinsed and trimmed
- 1 pound of bacon reserve 3 full slices for optional garnish, and chop up the rest
- 1/2 onion diced
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 1/2 tsp of sugar
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Rinse collards under cool water. Remove any yellow or bruised leaves. To trim the leaves, slice the leaf down the middle along the center stem on both sides, removing the center stem. Take the two halves and lay them on top of each other creating a pile. Then you will slice them into strips.
- Chop your onion and your bacon. Begin cooking them in your pot to soften your onion and release some of the bacon grease as you partially cook your bacon. This will take about 5-7 minutes.
- Once your onions are softened, add your sliced collards, vinegar, broth, sugar, red pepper flakes and salt and pepper to your pot. Stir. Place your lid on your pot and bring to a boil. Boil for 30-40 minutes till your collards are the desired consistency. You want them to be soft but not mushy.
- Cook the 3 additional pieces of bacon and crumble them. When you are ready to serve your collards, top with the crumbled bacon.
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Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer: Family Fresh Meals is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is only an estimate. We recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator if you need to verify any information.
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