Collard Greens

For a simple supper, we can’t imagine adding anything to this dish other than sliced tomatoes, zydeco music, and a little two-step.

Gina: I’m always surprised to discover that folks in these parts tend to cook turnip and mustard greens more often than collard greens. I think the perception is that collards tend to be a little bitter. But I gotta tell you, you’re sleeping on this one! Rich in vitamins and nutrients, collard greens are actually the sweetest, best-tasting leaves you can buy (turnip and mustard greens, on the other hand, have a slightly spicy, peppery taste). In this recipe, the deep, full flavor of the collard greens along with a bit of sugar and some heat from the red-pepper flakes create an irresistible sweet-and-hot pot of goodness, while the ham hocks add a note of smoke that balances out the other flavors. Pat can’t get enough of these sweet greens. Trust me on this one, ladies—this is the recipe that’ll bring your man home every night! Five bunches of collards might seem like a lot of greens, but these jokers will cook down to a fraction of their original size.

Gina: My friends call me the collard-green queen—I love to cook them up any and every way imaginable. So it was only a matter of time before I decided to replace spinach with collards in the classic artichoke dip. Ohmigoodness, the results were even better than I anticipated. If you want to surprise your friends with something delicious and unexpected, this is the appetizer to prepare. You can buy baked pita chips to serve with this dip, but they’re so fun and easy to make that you might just want to do it yourself (which also gives you a little more control over the amount of salt and oil used). This dip goes well with salsa and sour cream on the side.

One of my cousins was married to a Kashmiri gentleman, and for the period when he was working at the United Nations in New York he had brought along a manservant. My cousin let me have him once a week to cook and clean. His repertoire was limited—he could only cook dishes he had learned from my cousin, such as this simple Kashmiri staple, which we loved. Soon he was making it week after week, and it remains one of our favorites. In Kashmir, collard-type greens and rice are eaten as commonly as beans and rice in Central America, the season for them lasting from spring (when the greens are tender) until the snows start to fall in early winter (when the greens get coarser). Note: Young greens will cook faster. So if you are using them, start with half the stock and add more if needed. Serve with rice and either a dal or a meat curry.

Black-eyed peas and nourishing greens, two foods well-loved in Southern and “soul” cookery, have flavors that team companionably. Serve with baked sweet potatoes, fresh corn bread, and sliced tomatoes.

PAT You won't find a collard green—or a green of any kind, for that matter—that Gina hasn't mastered and found a dozen ways to cook. She's queen of the twists on greens. The idea for this particular twist came from stuffed cabbage with a vinegary red sauce—but we think this is even better than that recipe. Don't you?

Are you flush with folate? Too-low levels are linked with osteoporosis, depression and more. Black-eyed peas are a top source of the vitamin.

Spicy, sharp turnip greens, braised gently with a smoked ham hock, are a time-honored accompaniment on southern tables at any time of the year. This version, with the ivory turnips, golden apple, and pink ham nestled among the dark greens, is especially pretty.

Sweet-tart pineapple is wonderful with pork, as are collard greens. The two together, plus a healthy dose of vinegar, morph into something that's utterly surprising and utterly delicious. It both complements and cuts the richness of the meat.

Soundtrack: "Sankofa" by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and Tony Allen from Allen Chop Up and "Sankofa" by Cassandra Wilson from Blue Light 'Til Dawn This recipe was the seed of Vegan Soul Kitchen... a brand new classic, if you will, dedicated to my home city in the mid-South—Memphis, Tennessee.

Editor's Note: This recipe originally accompanied a story on Mother's Day. For the complete story and more of Jamie and Bobby Deen's recipes, click here. When Tabasco started making chipotle hot pepper sauce, we started using it to spike up our regular recipe for collards. It's a match made in heaven.

Sturdy forest-green collards provide the wrapping for buttery, juicy mushrooms. Elegance comes easily when it comes to these bundles, since they can be assembled a day ahead.

This recipe was created by chef Traci Des Jardins of San Francisco's Jardinière. It's part of a special menu she created for Epicurious's Wine.Dine.Donate program.

Collards are normally associated with long, slow cooking, but cutting them into thin strips reduces cooking time dramatically. The result is a bright, lively flavor that will make you realize these greens are more versatile than most people think.

>Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are adapted from Floyd Cardoz's book, One Spice, Two Spice. The dish is also part of a special menu Chef Cardoz created for Epicurious's Wine.Dine.Donate program. I first visited Kashmir, up in the mountains of northern India, when I was in my late teens, and the food made a huge impression. Although the cuisine is most famous for its meat dishes and Persian-inspired rice pilafs, the treatment of greens is exceptional as well. In Kashmir, this dish is made with kohlrabi greens in season, but it is equally delicious when made with any hearty braising greens such as collards, chard (the colored varieties are very pretty), mustard greens, and/or turnip greens. Bok choy and pea shoots are good additions to the mix.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Seasoned in the South by Bill Smith, the chef at Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill. Throughout the South, collards are a traditional New Year's Day dish — because their flat, green leaves resemble dollar bills, collards are said to bring monetary fortune in the new year. Hardly a workday passes that I don't eat at least a spoonful of collards. I never grow tired of them. I also love to drink their broth and to pour the broth over rice. My great-grandmother used to say that this "pot liquor" was like medicine. She also said that eating collards was how poor people survived the Depression, because collards will grow almost anywhere under almost any conditions and are very nourishing. People would plant them in their yards back then, and they still do. Essentially all you do to collards is boil them for a long time with salt. At Crook's I almost always have a ham bone to add. Most butcher shops and meat departments will have some sort of ham bone or ham hocks for sale.

Cooking collards slowly is the traditional approach in the South, producing tender greens and the bonus of pot likker, the pale green pork-flavored broth left in the pot after the collards are served up. Many people sip a small cup of the pot likker as a cure for the common cold, while others dunk their corn muffins in it.

Unlike southern-style slow-cooked collards, this blanched and quickly sautéed version has a bit of chew.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. Some people favor collard greens boiled until they are meltingly tender, while others prefer them to retain some bite. This recipe satisfies the taste of the latter group. According to the author, this recipe goes well with roast goose.

This dish, flavored with achiote seeds, garlic, and spices, is based on chicken pibil, from Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. Traditionally, the chicken is baked in banana leaves, but here we've used collard leaves because they are more readily available. They add moisture and a bit of flavor but do not get tender enough to eat.