Cooler weather makes me crave hot dishes like stews or stewed vegetables. A tasty vegetable that’s easy to prepare is collard greens simmered in a meat broth.
Collards are a beautiful, dark green veggie. They are full of vitamin A, K and many other key vitamins. Mostly known in soul-food cookery, the greens are used in southern foods and in Africa. Southeast Asians also cook with these leaves, for example in Cambodian fish and collard dishes. If you can’t find collard greens, substitute curly kale or black kale, also called lacinato or dinosaur kale.
For the broth, start with flavorful ham or turkey bones. If you don’t have any in your freezer from holiday parties, buy smoked turkey legs or ham hocks. To keep it vegetarian, use vegetable broth and omit meat.
The only other ingredients in this simple dish are onions, garlic and red chili flakes. You can cook this in under an hour, but allow a bit of prep time to tear the leaves from the thick stalk, which is too coarse to eat.
The distinctive taste of collard leaves cooked in the smoky turkey or ham broth makes this a delicious side dish. Think macaroni and cheese, cornbread and collard greens.
Even the flavorful liquid from the cooked greens, called “pot likker,” may be sipped like a soup.
COLLARD GREENS
By Lynette Lo Tom
- 1-1/2 pounds turkey bones or legs (substitute ham bones or ham hocks)
- 10 cups water
- 2 to 2-1/2 pounds collard greens, washed
- 5 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 teaspoon chili pepper flakes
- Salt, to taste
In a large Dutch oven, cover turkey (or ham) bones with water. Bring to a boil; cook 15 minutes. Skim any oil from surface. You may remove bones at this point or leave them in.
Remove collard leaves from stems and cut into 2-inch pieces. Discard stems. Add greens to the pot with garlic, onion and chili flakes.
Continue heating until pot reaches a boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Cover and continue cooking until leaves are tender, about 45 minutes.
Taste; add salt if needed. Serve hot or at room temperature. Serves 4 to 6 as a side dish.
Approximate nutritional information, per serving (not including salt to taste): 90 calories, 2 g total fat, no saturated fat, 5 mg cholesterol, 200 mg sodium, 13 g carbohydrate, 5 g fiber, 4 g sugar, 7 g protein.
”Easy Kine” features simple dishes that start with commercially prepared ingredients. Lynette Lo Tom is excited to hear your tried-and-true suggestions. Contact her at 275-3004, email lynette@brightlightcookery.com or via instagram at @brightlightcookery. Nutritional analysis by Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S.
