Farm Recipes – Savory Collard Greens

In honor of the holidays, and to give you a real taste of the farm, we’ve decided to share a few of our favorite recipes with you. You’re likely to find some of these dishes featured on our menus, depending on the season, but until we can invite you all down as our guests, we’ve decided to post a few of them here on our blog. This one is for cooking collard greens, but with a twist.

Savory Collard Greens with Bacon

This vegan-friendly collard green recipe has some things in common with typical Southern recipes, but this one adds a dash of hot sauce and dried cranberries at the end to give it a savory kick. It’s easy to make, but this recipe works best if you have a dutch oven to cook them in.

1 bunch collard greens, cleaned, stems removed, and chopped
3 slices bacon, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
1/2 cup (125ml) low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth*
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce**
1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped

*NOTE: We often make this with vegetable broth instead. But, if you made our Aunt Sissy’s cornbread dressing recipe, then make enough chicken broth to make this dish for your holiday meal too!

**NOTE: We used a Chipotle hot sauce to give it a hint of smoke, but it works very well with Sriracha too.

Place the bacon pieces in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Cook for 5 minutes or until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pot and chop into pieces. Set half of it aside for later, but put the remainder back in the pot. Drain off some of the bacon fat if there’s too much.

Add the chopped onion to the Dutch oven and cook for 3-4 minutes, until softened. Add the garlic, salt, and pepper, then cook for 30 seconds, just until the garlic is fragrant.

Add the chopped collard greens to the Dutch oven and cook for 3 minutes or until collard greens are wilted. Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a simmer.

Reduce the heat to a low simmer, then cover the pot and steam the collard greens for 5 minutes or until they are tender. Stir in the hot sauce and cook for an additional 5 minutes to reduce the sauce.

Sprinkle the cooked collard greens with the remaining bacon and cranberries and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and  serve the sauteed collard greens immediately.