Simple Tips For Cooking Collard Greens

Collard greens (Brassica oleracea) are loose-leaved like kale and spinach. You can eat them raw, although they are much better when cooked.

Collard greens prepare reasonably quickly and are best sauteed in olive oil. However, if you are not a vegetarian, you can try preparing them with bacon for added taste. This is my favored way of cooking them. Merely heat some oil in a frying pan and prepare the sliced up bacon initially, up until it is crispy. Then remove it from the heat and crumble it before putting it back in the pan.

Next add the kale and cover it with chicken stock, adding red pepper flakes and seasoning. Simmer for about 45 minutes or less, up until the greens hurt. If you wish to prepare the greens quickly, slice them into medium-sized pieces and include olive oil to a frying pan. When it's hot add the ingredients you intend using. You can add sliced garlic and red pepper flakes to spice up the rather boring taste of the collard greens. Add the greens to the pan and saute them for about four minutes, or up until they are intense green.

If you have a slow cooker you can cook the greens with ham hocks for a southern-style meal. Use chicken stock and spices to improve the flavors. It's best to prepare this meal over night. Take care when removing the ham hocks as you don't want to leave any slivers of bone in the greens. Then stir them. Let the hocks cool before attempting to manage them. You need to eliminate all the fat from the hocks and naturally, eliminate the bone from each hock.

Put the meat back into the slow cooker and add the greens, stirring them so that the meat and vegetables are integrated well. You might want to reheat the mixture before serving this traditional Southern-style dish.

If you are vegetarian, stick with the garlic and red pepper flakes and, naturally the greens, but include sliced spring onions, and some other greens, such as kale, and turnip and mustard greens. These go very well together and some chopped tomatoes would also help to improve the flavor. To spice them up a little, you can include tamari, or the more usual soy sauce, smoked paprika (or hot paprika), and seasoning.

These green leaves are very healthy, containing, as they do vitamins K, A, E and B intricate ones. When it comes to minerals they have iron, manganese, and calcium, to call simply a few. Why not cook some and give yourself a healthy treat?

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