Collard Greens Are a Tasty Superfood
Cheap, delicious, nutritious. What more can you want?
I missed out on eating this amazing vegetable for most of my life. Now, I’m making up for it. My school cafeteria served them once—a straight from the gallon can, pea green, sloppy mess with a sheen of unappealing ham grease floating on top. Yuck!
Collards, Collard Greens, Collards Greens.
Or just yummy. It doesn’t matter what you call them, but they’re easy to grow and simple to cook.
Collards are a member of the brassica family. That huge group of plants contains cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, and more.
All the brassicas prefer cool weather and rich soil. A temperate climate with daytime temperatures between 55 and 75 is perfect for these plants, but collards will continue producing until the temperatures are steadily over 85.
I suggest making a second planting about two months before the first frost in your area. Protect the plants with row covers or low tunnels, and they’ll produce until the temperatures are below 30 degrees.
Place your collard transplants about 18 inches apart in soil with plenty of compost or well-rooted manure added. To get crisp, tender leaves, water the plants regularly. About 50 days after transplanting, begin cutting off the bottom leaves. Don’t pull the plants up; pick a few leaves from each plant every week, and the plant will produce for a couple of months.
Insects love collard greens, too.
Just like all the other members of the brassica family, collards will attract the cabbage looper moth, cabbage worms, and possibly Harlequin bugs, among other insects.
Keep an eye out for the small white moths flying around your plants, indicating it’s time to begin spraying Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) on your plants every ten days. It’s a soil-dwelling bacteria that only affects caterpillars when they eat the sprayed leaves. It’s harmless to humans.
My favorite variety to eat and grow is the Green Glaze Collards, an heirloom type from Southern Exposure seed company. The plants shine like they’ve been waxed, are less attractive to bugs, and are exceedingly tender. A five-star veggie for sure!
Collards taste good, and they’re great for your body.
Only one cup of cooked collard greens contains only 63 calories along with:
5.15 g (g) of protein
1.37 g of fat
10.73 g of carbohydrate, including 7.6 g of fiber and less than 1 g of sugar
268 milligrams (mg) of calcium
2.15 mg of iron
40 mg of magnesium
61 mg of phosphorus
222 mg of potassium
28 mg of sodium
0.44 mg of zinc
34.6 mg of vitamin C
30 mcg of folate
722 micrograms (mcg) of vitamin A (RAE)
1.67 mg of vitamin E
772.5 mcg of vitamin K
Collard greens are also a good source of vitamin A, vitamin C, and calcium, a substantial amount of vitamin K, and are a source of iron, vitamin B-6, and magnesium. They also contain thiamin, niacin, pantothenic acid, and choline.
Only chicken is more popular than collards in the South.
According to an article on the World’s Healthiest Foods website, older people in the south said they preferred collards over ice cream, pie, or cake. In fact, only chicken outranked collard greens.
And do you know why? Because older folks are often great cooks. I’m older, and I’ve been growing, cooking, and eating collards for 20 years. I believe you’ll like this recipe, too.
Cindy’s Bonafide Delectable Versatile Mess of Greens
Take one bunch of greens, similar in size to this photo.
Wash well. Trim two inches from the bottom and discard. Chop the rest of the stalk (below the rubber band in the photo) into one-inch pieces. Set aside.
Roll up the leaves lengthwise like long cigars and slice them into one-inch ribbons.
Other ingredients:
4 cloves or more of garlic, minced
1 onion, sliced thinly
In a roomy skillet, heat a couple of tablespoons of healthy cooking oil until just hot and add the garlic, onion, and the chopped collard stems. Lower heat and saute, occasionally stirring, until the onion is soft.
Add all the sliced greens and stir them until they’re coated in oil. Add a little more oil if needed. Allow to cook over medium-low heat until wilted and beginning to cook.
Add about 1 and 1/2 cups of water or vegetable broth to skillet and cover. Lower heat to a simmer for about 30 minutes. Stir a couple of times. Taste a leaf, and when they’re almost melt-in-your-mouth tender, they’ll be ready to season. Not quite done? Cook a little longer.
Choose Your Seasonings
Now you get your choice of tasty additions.
This photo shows some of my favorite seasonings.
From the left: soy sauce, a quality black pepper, hidden in the rear, is Bragg’s apple cider vinegar, rice vinegar, Red Devil hot sauce, liquid smoke, molasses, dashi, and of course, garlic and onions.
I wouldn’t use all of these ingredients simultaneously; it’s just to give you an idea of some possibilities.
Sometimes, I use prepared mustard and brown sugar. It just depends on my mood.
Add your seasonings along with a bit more liquid, so you’ll end up with about 25% broth and 75% greens. Here in Texas and most other parts of the South, this liquid is called the pot likker (pot liquor in other places), and it’s delicious. Add salt to taste.
The mixture is delicious served in a bowl over hot garbanzo beans, rice, pinto beans, black-eyed peas, cornbread, or any Asian noodle. Sometimes I add tofu if I want a bit more protein. Any leftovers freeze well.
If you’ve got your own great recipe for this versatile green, let me know how you eat it. Enjoy!