My Family's Collard Greens Recipe

The following collard greens recipe totally highlights how much you can do with collard greens and how they may be dished up coupled with so many things including ham, chicken, bacon, pork chops, and in many cases just some other vegetables. I enjoy collard greens with fresh home-grown tomatoes or chow chow (a green relish). You are going to notice that collard greens have leaves slightly thicker than lettuce meaning they can be great for steaming and serving hot.

Traditionally, collard greens tend to be eaten on New Year’s Day, along with black-eyed peas and cornbread. This traditional meal is said to guarantee prosperity in the coming yr, since some people believe that collard leaves resemble rolled up money. Cornbread is great to use to absorb the tasty broth made by this collard greens course. The broth used to be referred to as "pot liquor."

Collard Greens Ingredients:


1 pound collard greens, washed, lightly dried in towels after which chopped to the size of your preference. I love to leave my collard leaves in huge pieces given that the leaves will wilt anyway once cooked. However, others, like my brother, like their leaves chopped up the same as lettuce leaves.

A single 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil or Canola oil (avoid the use of peanut oil, due to its particularly strong taste)

A single tablespoon butter 1/2 of a large white-colored or yellow onion finely cut

A single teaspoon of red pepper flakes or 1/2 tsp of hot sauce like Tabasco

two cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

Several cups of vegetable (vegetarian) or chicken base

a pair of ripe tomatoes, sliced

Salt/pepper to preference


Directions for making collard greens:

Warm up the oil and the butter inside a big pan on top of medium-high heat so that the two are melted together, swirl the skillet now and again to ensure that the butter doesn't burn. Saute the the peeled and diced onions then pour in the red pepper flakes and then the garlic. If you are using hot sauce instead of pepper flakes, do not add the Tobasco sauce in the skillet at this step. Rather, wait until the stock is poured in to the fry pan and then it is advisable to add the hot Tobasco sauce.

Stir the yellow and white onions and garlic frequently and keep a close eye on them as they saute so as to ensure that the diced garlic will not burn and also to make sure that the cooking oil doesn't get too hot and start to smoke. Ideally, the diced garlic should begin to turn golden brown after only a few minutes of cooking as well as the onions will become clear. Mix in the collard greens and saute for one more minute. Put in the vegetable stock and Tobasco sauce (discretionary), cover and simmer. Cook till the collard greens are soft and wilted, about 40 minutes. Lastly, add the tomatoes and then season with salt and fresh ground black pepper. Serve warm.

red beans and rice would be a great compliment to the collard greens.