Southern-Style Collard Greens and Kale

Written by on in Dinner, Side Dish

In this week’s produce coop delivery, we received collard greens and kale, so I decided to make them Southern style, slow cooked with pork bones. While I did not have a ham hock for a truly authentic dish, I had bones from on the bone pork chops that I had cut off the bone for pork carnitas for Cinco de Mayo. (See Pork Carnitas recipe: https://coookingupjustice.com/cinco-de-mayo-taco-tuesday-in-quarantine). Because I had cut the meat off the bones with the intent to re-use in this fashion, the meat helped flavor the greens. This recipe calls for using both a pot and slow cooker. I hate having to clean both, but cooking in the pot beforehand helps to ensure perfectly cooked collard greens.

Southern-Style Collard Greens and Kale
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Southern-Style Collard Greens and Kale

Recipe by The Cooking LawyerCourse: DinnerCuisine: SouthernDifficulty: Easy
Servings

4

servings
Prep time

30

minutes
Cooking time

4

hours 

Ingredients

  • 1 lbs collard greens

  • 1 lbs kale

  • 1 ham hock or other pork bones

  • 1 onion chopped

  • 3 cloves garlic chopped

  • 2 cups chicken broth (or bouillon with 2 cups of water)

  • 1 tsp salt

  • 1 tsp black pepper

  • 1 pinch crushed red pepper

  • 1 TBS honey

  • 3 TBS cider vinegar

  • Nonstick cooking spray

Directions

  • Clean your greens well. Collard greens can be sandy, so make sure you clean them well. Then cut them into ribbons. You can cut out the hard stem from the collard greens, but I left them because they have a lot of nutrients. Put to the side.
  • Chop your onion.
  • In large pot, add the onion with some nonstick cooking spray, and sweat down until translucent.
  • Chop your garlic. Add to pot with the onion.
  • Add the ham hock or pork bones. Begin to render any fat off the bones. Cook for about 5 minutes.
  • Add your greens to begin to sweat them down. Saute for about five minutes.
  • While the greens are cooking, add to slow cooker the broth, crushed red pepper, honey, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine.
  • Add the greens and bones into the slow cooker. Mix well. You should have enough liquid to cover the greens (which is why sauteing first helps because the greens will have shrunk somewhat so you can tell if you have enough liquid). If you do not have enough liquid, add more broth.
  • Slow cook for 4 hours.
  • Pull out the bones. Serve immediately. Hopefully, you have some bread to soak up your delicious broth, too.

Notes

  • You can use bacon instead of pork bones.