A great make-ahead dish from the pages of Southern Living. Use your collards, or your kale, or your beet greens, or a combination of all three. Make up a big batch of greens and then reserve some for this dish.
Grits-and-Greens Breakfast Bake
Collards
Collards for Thanksgiving
— Adapted from a recipe in “Farming, Friends, & Fried Bologna Sandwiches” by Renea Winchester (Mercer University Press, $21).
Classic Collards
Let’s start collards season with this classic recipe. You can mix in your mustard greens if you like. (I like – I love the combination. But then, mustard greens are my favorite greens.)
Greens and Onion “Souffle”
This recipe is great for using up some more of those greens. It will work with your beet greens, radish greens, turnip greens or chard. I wouldn’t use the collards, they just need a little more cooking to be tender. An adaptation of a recipe from Rebecca Lang’s “Quick-Fix Southern: Homemade Hospitality in 30 Minutes or Less.” Greens and onions are such natural companions.
Cold Noodles with Fresh and Preserved Greens
Preserved mustard greens can be found canned at most Chinese markets but I’ve included a recipe for preserved greens that you could make with your collard greens. Yes, you’ll have to plan ahead of this dish, but you’ll have an interesting way to use up some of your collards.
Try your romaine lettuce in this dish, or the tender radish and beet greens. Or the cabbage! Or use the kale and cook the greens a little longer than called for here.
Adapted from recipes on seriouseats.com and Saveur magazine.
Savannah Peanut Collard Greens
This idea for collard greens comes from “From The Food, Folklore, and Art of Lowcountry Cooking” by Joseph E. Dabney (Cumberland House). The book includes this note:
“Brimming bowls of collard greens infused with peanut butter are one of the most popular side dishes served at Andrew and Eileen Trice’s Angel’s Barbecue located on West Oglethorpe Lane in Savannah’s historic district. Andrew picked up the idea from a friend who had visited West Africa and witnessed firsthand how it was done there. On occasion, Andrew adds hot chili peppers, following another West African practice.
“On the raining late October day that I visited their small restaurant tucked in a lane behind the Independent Presbyterian Church, Andrew and Eileen had sold out of the unusual dish. So unfortunately I did not get to try it firsthand. But they still shared the recipe with me!”
Collard Greens and Cheddar Cheese Pakoras
Here’s a recipe for when you run out of ideas for collard greens this fall. It comes from the Food 52 blog. Besan or chickpea flour is traditional and can be found at the DeKalb or Buford Highway Farmers Markets or at stores that sell Indian groceries. Not sure if Whole Foods or Sevananda carries it. You could substitute all-purpose flour if that’s simpler.
Bratwurst, Butternut Squash and Collard Green Stew
This recipe is adapted from one on Chow.com. I think the smallish butternut squash in my box today may be just the right size!
Sweet Potatoes with Collard Greens and Field Peas
With apologies to those of you who get emails from Whole Foods, this is a recipe that just arrived in my inbox today. “Sweet potatoes, collard greens …. and how about substituting those field peas for the aduki beans called for in the recipe,” I thought. And so, here it is.
Smoked Chile Collard Greens
One more collard green recipe – this one from Bobby Flay’s “Bar Americain Cookbook”. You can always cook the beet greens along with the collards to make up that 2 1/2 pounds the recipe calls for.