Southern Collard Greens (with Guest Chef Richard King)
Southern Collard Greens
(with Guest Chef Richard King)
We are headed to the South today. Well, not physically – just in a culinary manner – with a favorite southern dish. And this time we have our first “Guest Chef” - my husband, Richard! He's made this many, many times, and it's always great!
You'll notice these directions do not have specific amounts for anything. It would not be very authentic if it did. You just do things according to your own taste, and according to what you have and how much you want. We will guide you through the process and then you can take off with it!
But first … We Start at the Garden!!
Richard normally makes this with collard greens from our home garden, but this time we are using some from the Grow City Teaching Garden. In spring of 2021, seed for Morris Heading Collards was planted in Bed #4. It grew gloriously, and Richard made some collard greens from it, too. “Heading” collards are also called “Cabbage-Head” collards – they grow in a bunchier manner than other, looser collard varieties.
When the collard plants seemed done in 2021, we cut off the plants at the soil line (saving any usable leaves for cooking), leaving the roots in the ground. I often do this when removing crops, leaving the roots and their associated microorganisms and nutrients to finish off underground, enriching the soil.
But, in this case the roots grew more plants! Surprise – we had big collard plants again in the spring of 2022, and all through the growing season. It's nice when you can get more than one year's harvest from something without replanting. The parts of the stems just above the roots had resprouted (I found out later that these need to be cut below the soil line if you want to kill them off).
And, so, Richard and I went to Grow City, where he harvested some of the collard leaves by just grabbing the leaf stems and breaking them off the main stem.
We bagged them and put them in the refrigerator to cook the next day.
Now on to the cooking instructions!
Ingredients:
Fresh collard leaves
salt
olive oil
bacon
onion
optional: hot pepper, sweet pepper, garlic
stock or bouillon
freshly ground black pepper
your choice of other seasonings
Preparation and Cooking:
Fill a sink with cold water. Add some salt, then the collard leaves. Let it soak for a while. This is for beginning to clean the leaves. Sometimes collard leaves have a lot of dirt or other debris on them, but these were very clean.
Scrubbing the Collards – pick up the leaves and scrub them between your hands to remove any more dirt.
Another cleaning
Wash and scrub the leaves again, with fresh salt water. Do this as many times as you need until the water is clear (these only needed to be washed twice). Rinse the leaves.
Stripping the Middles – you need to remove the tough center stem of each leaf. One way is to just tear each side of the leaf from the stem.
The other is to fold the leaf, then pull the center stem down and off.
There are a few ways you could break the leaves into smaller pieces for cooking. Collards are tough leaves, so they need to be broken down. One way is to just tear the leaves into pieces. Another is to chop them up with a knife. Another way is to chiffonade the leaves, which cuts them into strips, and which Richard demonstrates here.
Stack some of the leaves. Then roll them up like a big cigar.
Make thin, crosswise slices of the whole “cigar”. Repeat with more leaves, if needed.
Next you need to get the bacon started. First, put some olive oil in the cooking pot and turn on the heat (low).
Take 2 or more slices of bacon (depending on your amount of collard leaves, and how much bacon you like). Slice them up crosswise.
Drop the bacon pieces in the oil and let cook while you prepare the other ingredients. Let them cook until they are crisp, but don't let them burn (check and stir it now and then).
Now cut up the rest of the ingredients:
Slice up an onion.
If you choose to use hot pepper (we always do), slice up the amount that you like.
If you choose to use sweet pepper, slice it open, remove the seeds and membrane, slice the pepper lengthwise, then chop the slices.
You might also choose to add garlic. When I asked Richard if the garlic was considered optional, he said, “If you don't like garlic, don't add it”. Personally, I can't imagine this without garlic (but then, there's not much I can imagine without garlic). So, peel, slice and chop the garlic, as long as you do like it. Again, use the amount that you would like.
Board with prepared collard leaves, hot and sweet peppers, onions, garlic.
By the way, the hot and sweet peppers came from the home garden, and the garlic from Grow City. The bacon, onion, and everything else came from the grocery.
When the bacon is crispy, add the chopped peppers and sliced onions to it (don't add the garlic yet).
Adding peppers and onions to bacon
Stir this mixture and let it cook for about a minute.
Now add the chopped garlic. Stir, and cook for a little bit.
You don't want to add garlic at the same time as the peppers and onions because it tends to burn more easily and then adds bitterness.
Now you get to add the prepared collard leaves!! Drop them in a handful at a time, stirring a bit.
Cover the pan and let the greens wilt some. Don't let them burn!
Uncover, and add some freshly ground black pepper, to taste (here's the ratchet-style grinder, introduced in the previous blog post!)
Adding black pepper
Then you can add any other seasonings you prefer. Richard likes to add Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning (you can also get a hotter version of this).
Now you will introduce the broth, stock, or bouillon in which everything will simmer. Richard likes to use a product called Better Than Bouillon that you scoop into water and mix up. Here, he is using the chicken BTB. First, he adds water to the pot (not too much). Then he scoops in about a teaspoon of the BTB.
Then you stir in the bouillon until it is all mixed in.
If you are using stock or broth, just pour it in the way Richard added the water here.
Check the pot now and then – you may need to add some more water (or broth, or stock) so that the contents don't boil down and burn.
Let this cook for about an hour or so, covered, on low. The amount of time depends on how tough your collard leaves are. It can also depend on just how you like your finished collard greens. There are various traditions with this. Some cook it for a long time until it's all mushy! Some like the leaves to have chewiness to them.
As Richard says, at this point you let the greens mixture “do its thing” (but do check on it and stir it now and then).
Finished Southern Collard Greens!!
Can you smell and taste them already?
The brothiness with the greens is “pot liqueur” or “pot likker” and is very valuable. It's full of flavor, good for sopping up with cornbread or biscuits, adding to something else, or just drinking from your bowl. It's also full of nutrition and is very comforting.
Richard made a whole supper around the greens. Here is my bowl of Southern Collard Greens, on a plate with “Dirty Rice” (he used ground beef), sliced fresh garden tomatoes, and fried okra (also from the home garden).
We also had iced tea. The southern way, of course, is to have Sweet Tea, which Richard prefers. But, I'm a Northern Girl and I don't like any sweetness in mine. :) I have been introduced to a number of southern dishes that I love (greens, grits, all sort sorts of things), but I have to have my iced tea plain.
There you have it!
I wish I could share the greens with you right now so you would know how good they taste. But you'll have to make your own! You can see that it's easy. :)
Be sure to grow some collard greens in your garden! They are very satisfying to grow, they flourish in the cooler weather, don't mind the hot weather, hang on over the winter, and they get really large, providing a lot of food!
While you are at it, grow some onions, garlic, sweet peppers and hot peppers.
Richard, the “Collards Model”
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