Green is good!

I am just going to throw this out there. I have been having a love affair with collard greens. Yep. You read that right. I love this big beautiful green leaf. This is the first year for collard greens in my garden, and I am thrilled with the outcome.

My favorite way to eat collard greens is using them as a wrap for a turkey and cheese collard green wrap. I love the crunch that it gives to the wrap, and I am all about the crunch. Here is THE MOST simplest wrap to make. Only three ingredients, but play around with whatever you like. The important part is to use the collard green as a wrap.

Turkey & Cheese Collard Green Wrap

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Ingredients

• 2 collard green leaves

• 2 or 4 slices of turkey (depends on how much meat you like)

• 2 slices of cheese (your choice, but I use either Provolone or Monterey Jack cheese)

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Directions

• Cut the thick stem from the collard green leaves.
• Lay out the leaves and put one (1) slice of cheese on each wrap. Place it towards the top of each leaf.
• Put one (1) or two (2) slices of turkey on top of the cheese.
• Fold up the bottom of a leaf to cover the turkey, then roll up the leaf from left to right.
• Repeat this step with the other leaf and enjoy! Simply and delicious!

If you would prefer your collard greens cooked, for the first time I made collard greens as a side dish to panko crusted oven fried chicken. There are so many collard green recipes out there. I turned to my Food Network app to see what recipes I could find. The two recipes that caught my attention were Sunny Anderson’s Vegetarian “Southern-style” Collard Greens and Guy Fieri’s Southern Collard Greens.

I always look at the ratings first, and I was impressed with 119 high-rated reviews of Sunny’s dish, while Guy was not too shabby at 47 reviews, which were high as well. One of the reviews for Guy made me laugh, because it was similar to my initial thought which was “Guy Fieri is from California. What does he know about making collard greens?” I do have to say, I believe he does know a thing or two.

When trying a new recipe, I normally follow it to a tee, but in this case, I combined the recipe from Sunny with the one from Guy and did my own thing. Here is my version of a collard greens mash up of the two recipes.

Collard Greens My Way

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Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 1/4 cup of salt pork (diced)

• 1/2 large white onion (diced)

• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

• 1 pound of chopped collard greens (approximately 36 leaves)

• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

• 1 cup chicken stock

• 1/2 cup vegetable stock

• 1 1/2 tbsp white vinegar

• A few dashes of hot sauce

• salt to taste (a pinch or two)

• 1 tomato (seeded and diced)

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Directions

• Cut off and discard the tough stems and discolored leaves from the greens, then chop into two inch squares
• In a large stock pot, over medium-high heat, add the olive oil and the diced salt pork, and cook until light golden brown and just crisp. Remove to a paper towel lined plate and let cool.
• Add the onion to the pot and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes, then add the red pepper flakes, black pepper, and the collard greens.
• Stir every few minutes, or until greens have wilted down. Add the chicken stock and vegetable stock and cover. Cook for 30 to 40 minutes, then remove the lid, increase the heat to high, and add the vinegar, hot sauce, tomatoes and salt pork. Adjust the seasoning, if needed.
• Cook a few minutes longer and it is done. Serve and enjoy!