Braised Collards
september 15, 2014

We have made this recipe every New Year's Day for at least a decade, along with every other day that we happen to have collard greens. Like when they come in the CSA box, as they did last week.

This preparation of collard greens is unusual because it is vegetarian, which I appreciate simply because it means I don't have to buy any ingredients I don't keep around the house. Butter? Onions? Salt? I can handle that without a trip to the store.

Instead of the traditional ham hock, Madison uses brown butter, and on weekdays I shorten it and just brown the butter in the pan, then add the collards right to it, instead of going through the rigmarole of browning butter and straining it in cheesecloth before starting the collards. But doing it the long way is definitely more delicious. So for our end of year feast, I do. I also cook up black eyed peas to serve alongside.

The recipe is on p. 379 of Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. My adaptation of it is here in a post from 2011. You might just trade in your old, hammy, southern greens recipe for good after you try this one. Or maybe not. Either way, I'd love to hear how it goes!