Adventures in Cooking Our CSA Share: Collards, Glorious Collards

I grew up eating greens but couldn't distinguish between turnip, mustard, or collard if my life depended on it. And I'm not sure my mom cooked or served them differently: they all were long-simmered, sometimes with a ham bone, and then served with hot pepper vinegar (for Pop) and sometimes sliced boiled egg. I didn't love them; I didn't hate them. They just were.

And today, I have a pot of collard greens on my stove, sans ham bone and egg, though there will probably be vinegar. The recipe comes from Johnna Albi and Catherine Walthers's Greens Glorious Greens and is a low-fat, even vegetarian, almost anti-Southern version of the dish. But I'm in love with liquid smoke these days, the vegetarian's answer to ham bones and bacon, and have included it liberally in my pot.

I just might have to make cornbread tonight. Too bad we're out of peaches for crisp!

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Southern-Style (but Low-Fat) Collard Greens

3/4 lb collard greens (about 6 cups chopped)

4 cups lightly salted stock

1 teaspoon liquid smoke

apple cider or herbal vinegar

hot sauce

Wash collards, remove stalks, and stack 4-5 leaves. Roll like a cigar and slice into strips, approximately 1/2" wide (actually, I just tore them into pieces).

Bring the stock to a boil in a 3-4 quart saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. Add the liquid smoke.

Add the greens to the stock, pushing the greens down to submerge. Return to the boil, reduce heat to a slower bubble, cover, and cook for 10 minutes. (I'll actually cook mine a lot longer, it's just what you do).

Lift greens from stock with slotted spoon. Season to taste and serve with cornbread.

NOTE: I made some late additions, mainly a chopped onion and a cup of lentils, plus some vegetarian bacon salt for more flavor. Delicious.

Greens Glorious Greens