Healthy Recipe For Collard Greens

I’m a collard greens fanatic and I’ll eat them even if they’ve been boiled to high heaven, but the way we typically make our collards at home is a faster and easier way: sauteing them. This easy recipe for garlic sauteed collard greens will be a valuable tool in your leafy greens arsenal!

Greens have a flavor of their own, and you don’t need to infuse these sauteed collard greens with bacon or other meaty things in order to coax out a rounded taste. (Although, they’d be delicious as a side dish with tempeh bacon – I won’t lie).

Like with so many vegetables, collards taste awesome when they are properly prepped, seasoned with copious amounts of garlic, bloomed with some naturally piquant seasonings, salted well, and then lightly flash fried or stir fried. No pork products needed, and that means these healthy collard greens are cholesterol-free.

Soul Food Collard Greens Recipe

Deglazing the pan with a small amount of an acidic ingredient like mirin, apple cider vinegar, or lemon juice will help cling the garlic to your greens, and then a quick minute or two of steaming the collard greens with the lid on gets them fully tender.

If you’re looking for more of a smoked greens flavor then you can add a few drops of liquid smoke or use smoked paprika in your seasoning mix, but I personally don’t find this necessary.

This is my method for how to cut and prep collards so that they cook evenly and stems don’t end up in the final product.

Healthy Collard Greens Recipes

Lay a stack of collard leaves flat, and use a small, sharp knife to cut straight down the middle around the stem, then discard the stems. If we were adding these greens to a stew, the stems could stay and just be added earlier than the leaves. With this quick and easy collard greens recipe, we omit the stems so that the whole dish cooks more quickly.

Now, stack the halves of the leafs again, and roll up the whole thing. Then, from left to right, make 1/4-inch cuts to create perfectly even collard green strips. Rolling up the leaves first helps you cut through the whole thing with one motion of your knife, thus improving speed and reducing frustration.

Next comes the washing. It’s best to wash most leafy greens by fully submerging them in water and then swishing them around to remove any dirt and debris. If rinsing them, you tend to miss some spots because they have so much surface area. Repeat the submerge-and-swish more than once if needed, until water is no longer dirty.

Gomen (ethiopian Style Collard Greens)

Then drain the water away. If you have a salad spinner, this is where you spin the collard greens to dry them off. If you don’t have one, drain them as best you can, then spread them out on a dry baking sheet or cutting board, pat them with a towel, and let them finish air drying. It happens pretty quick. Once the greens are dry, you are ready to cook!

You can change up the spices to give these collards a bit of a different flavor. For an Indian inspired spin, add whole cumin seeds before the garlic, and add a little bit of minced ginger with the garlic as well. (Psst: blanched collard greens can be used in my vegan saag paneer!)

If you’d like to pair spinach and collard greens in one recipe, you can stir in some spinach after removing the lid from steaming the collards, and stir it in until wilted. If adding spinach, try to serve immediately, as the spinach could make the dish a bit watery the longer you wait.

Collard Greens (plus Video)

For a little bit of texture or crunch, you can add pumpkin seeds with the garlic. They add a great texture and flavor. Or, sprinkle the stir fried collards with hemp seeds before serving.

What do you eat sauteed collard greens with? Anything goes, but I like to have this as a side with pasta or noodle dishes, or alongside some saucy tofu with rice. Of course, serving the collard greens with some beans and cornbread would make for a nice and relatively well balanced, healthy Southern inspired platter.

You can store cooked collard greens in a container in the refrigerator once completely cooled. They will keep for up to about 5 days.

Baked Cajun Catfish And Easy Collard Greens

No need for long boiling or steaming times with this quick and easy method for sauteed collards! Now with a recipe video too!

Serving: 1 fourth recipe | Calories: 69 kcal | Carbohydrates: 8 g | Protein: 4 g | Fat: 3 g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2 g | Sodium: 78 mg | Potassium: 261 mg | Fiber: 5 g | Vitamin A: 121 IU | Vitamin C: 70 mg | Calcium: 26 mg | Iron: 4 mgfull of flavor and can be served as a healthy side dish or main meal (with optional beans included). It’s quick, easy, and versatile!

We have been enjoying this recipe often throughout the years. It’s one of those simple, everyday types of food that we love to eat on a regular basis.

Plant Powered Breakfast! Garnet Yam And Collard Greens Oil Free Hash

We prefer to eat our collards lightly cooked versus raw. They are a little too bitter for my taste when eaten raw, but once lightly sautéed, they lend a beautiful smoky flavor that is 100% crave-worthy.

I prefer my collards al dente and cooked for about five extra minutes. Ending cooking time will vary depending on how soft you like your collards.

Collard greens are a savory vegan side dish hearty enough to serve alone but can easily be made into a meal with any of these delicious options.

Collard Green Paleo Slaw (super Slaw)

If you make this easy collard greens recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment and rate it below. I love to hear what you think or any changes you make.

Don’t let the simplicity of this dish fool you, it’s anything but boring! Easy to put together, this vegan collard greens recipe is full of flavor and will leave you craving more.

Saute: Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat, add onion, and sauté 5 minutes. Add the garlic, saute 1 minute more.

Perfect Southern Collard Greens (video)

Cook: Add collards, tomatoes, lemon juice, and salt & pepper, cook another 5 minutes. Add optional beans, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until collards are wilted and beans are heated through. I prefer my collards al dente and cooked for about 5 extra minutes. Ending cooking time will vary depending on how soft you like your collards. Add the vegetable broth if cooking longer, or as needed.

Feel free to use diced canned, or sliced grape tomatoes, roma tomatoes on the vine. Use whatever tomatoes you prefer or have on hand.Collard greens are a long-standing New Year’s tradition for prosperity. They’re green, like money, and help to ensure good finances ahead. But I think it’s about time these calcium-rich plants promote a year of health, too. Most recipes use bacon, ham, or even cream. But this recipe for vegan collard greens from

Dena Dodd Perry has just released her first book Detoxelicious: Easy Soul Food Inspired 10-Day Detox Cleanse Recipes and Fitness For Super Busy People. All of her recipes are designed to be dairy-free, sugar-free, grain-free, meat-free and low-carb. But as you can tell by the title, this isn’t just a cookbook. Dena is a health coach and certified yoga instructor, so she wanted to create a self-help style book for food and fitness.

Heart Healthy Collard Greens Recipe

Dena also believes in dietary education, so she includes information with her recipes. This excerpt if from her Not-Yo-Mama’s Collard Greens recipe, which she has shared with us below.

Not-Yo-Mama’s Recipe 411: Did you know food historians date collard greens back to prehistoric times? Collard greens are members of the cabbage family. These greens are immune boosting and full of iron, Vitamin A, Vitamin C and other hearty nutrients. Although many people associate greens with southern African American culture, the reality is different. Here’s the deal. Collard greens are popular plants with a rich soulful history. The Romans and Portuguese have long used collard greens. Even so, I know you might want to hear more about the southern variety of greens that has hammocks or smoked turkey meat added to the collard greens, or the cornbread for dunking but you’ll be shocked to know how “detoxelicious” this dish is without any added meat. It’s just the African slaves and Native Americans shared ideas on how to make the collard greens more flavorful in the South. So, from my grandma table to yours, eat “detoxeliciously, ” without any complex animal meat proteins.

By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, gluten-free, grain-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan, vegetarian, and paleo-friendly. It might also be keto-friendly.

Southern Collard Greens Recipe

TIP: It takes a lot of will power and patience to get rid of the grit that loves to cling to these green leaves. Because rinsing is not enough, I recommend you soak them ahead of time. You can fill a clean sink with cold water and sprinkle the greens with salt. I recommend you clean the sink again then let the greens soak one to two more times. After soaking, then remove the