When most of us imagine collard greens, we think about the chopped up, super cooked (sometimes over-cooked) version with the smoked turkey neck bones (or bacon and/or hamhocks in some cases), mixed in for extra flavor. That version is tasty (especially with how my mom gets down), but there other ways we can eat our collards.
Collard green leaves are really thick and tough, so cooking them is ideal but you can eat them raw too. Enter my collard greens salad experiment:
Not only were those greens nice and chewable, but they tasted fresh crisp and delicious, the way a salad is supposed to. I rinsed my greens thoroughly and patted them dry first. I find that they hold on to flavor more when they are dry. I mixed rice wine vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, a smidget of salt and some pepper in a bowl. Then, I placed the leaves along with chopped up sun dried tomatoes in a bowl, shook it up and let it sit for about 15 minutes (in the refrigerator) so that the greens could soften up. I eyeballed each of the ingredients, so I’d say just add to taste or maybe do a tablespoon of each liquid. Don’t over do the salt (when I say a smidget, I really mean a tiny bit), especially if you’re going to add sun dried tomatoes. You can also add pepper flakes for a little extra kick if you’d like.
In related news, collard green leaves are also good for wrapping sandwiches and tacos instead of bread and tortillas, but I’ll get back to you on that. In the meantime, try this salad and let me know what you think.
