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Vegan recipes from my kitchen

Easy collard greens – tender & garlicky

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Text: Easy collard greens. Vegan & gluten-free. Greens in Pyrex dish on table.

This is my go-to collards recipe. These easy collard greens have a richness about them and a melt-in-your-mouth quality. Vegan & gluten-free side dish.

Collard greens in a yellow Pyrex on a table.

Garlicky greens are one of my all-time favorite foods. While they weren’t something that I grew up eating, I have more than made up for lost time since then.

Slow-cooked collards are tender and melt in your mouth.

And they make a great side dish along with vegan mac and cheese. If I make that for dinner, I can rest assured I will be very popular in my house that night.

Pile of greens on plate with vegan mac & cheese.

Are collard greens bitter?

One question I’m often asked about collards is if they are bitter.

If you’re used to milder greens like romaine or spinach, collards may seem bitter at first. They have a much stronger, grassier flavor.

That’s one benefit of cooking the collard greens low and slow. They lose a lot of their bitterness. And the flavor becomes richer with an almost tinny quality.

I cook my collards for about a half an hour with lots of sautéed garlic. But some people cook theirs for hours!

You can also add something sweet like dried cranberries to balance some of that bitterness, as I did in my recipe for smoky sweet vegan collard greens.

After a while, you will become accustomed to the strong flavors of dark, leafy greens. You may notice that your palate changes.

Who knows? With a little time you may be making collard leaf raw tacos!

Collard greens in a teal soup pot.

How to cook them

Start by getting out a big soup pot.

The collards will shrink a lot. But when you start, you will have a pretty big pile.

Put a bit of oil in the bottom of the pot. Sauté minced garlic until softened and fragrant.

Add the chopped collard greens to the pot, along with vegetable broth or water + a pinch of a vegetable bouillon cube.

The size of a bunch of greens varies. You don’t want the collards to be boiling in the broth or water.

So add as much as seems appropriate to keep the greens from burning. Then add more if the liquid is cooking off too quickly.

Once the liquid is at a simmer, turn the heat to low and cover with a lid. Allow the greens to cook for 25 minutes. You want them to be almost falling apart soft.

Greens are one of those rare foods that is actually better when it’s overcooked. So don’t be afraid to start the collards first before getting the rest of dinner going. It will only be improved by it.

(Just make sure they don’t run out of liquid and burn.)

Make it your own

Add curly kale to the mix

You can make collard greens your own by adding an equal amount of kale to your collards.

When you’re putting the collards into the soup pot, add an equal amount of kale. Then double the rest of the ingredients.

If collards taste bitter to you, kale makes the dish a little milder. (My husband always prefers collards with an equal amount of kale.)

Plus, both greens cook down a lot. So you’re more likely to get some leftovers out of it if you double up!

Add a splash of liquid smoke

Often, people will add smoked pig parts to greens. But why not leave the pigs out of it?

The only reason that product tastes smoky is because it has been cooked in a smoker. You can just as easily use liquid smoke instead.

As the name suggests, liquid smoke is simply smoke that has been condensed into a liquid. If you’d like specific amounts, check out this recipe for smoky sweet vegan collard greens.

Barbecued Soy Curls on plate with collard greens & non-dairy mac & cheese.

Serve these greens with main dishes like:

  • Vegan pulled pork 
  • Vegan polenta stacks with squash & cashew cream 
  • Buffalo Soy Curls sandwich 
  • Vegan BBQ sandwich 
  • Vegan fried chicken

Pile of greens on plate by mango habanero seitan ribs.

Collards pair well with side dishes like:

  • The best vegan potato salad 
  • Vegan coleslaw
  • Red wine mushrooms 
  • Vegan fried green tomatoes 
  • Buffalo corn on the cob 
  • Roasted delicata squash with rosemary 

Collards in a yellow Pyrex dish.

Collard greens in a yellow Pyrex on a table.

Easy collard greens (Vegan)

This is my go-to recipe for vegan collard greens. These simple greens have a richness about them and a melt-in-your-mouth quality. Feel free to add dashes of hot sauce, a bit of liquid smoke, or use smoked salt instead of sea salt.
5 from 1 vote
Print Pin Rate
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: American, Vegan
Keyword: gluten free, meatless, southern
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Servings: 2 people
Calories: 62kcal
Author: Cadry Nelson

Ingredients

  • 1 teaspoon organic canola oil or other neutral flavored oil
  • 4 to 5 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 bunch collard greens leaves removed from tough center rib and roughly chopped in medium-sized pieces
  • ½ cup vegetable broth Or 1/2 cup water + ¼ of a vegan vegetable bouillon cube
  • Salt to taste

Instructions

  • In a medium-sized pot or skillet with lid, bring oil to a medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about five minutes.
  • Add the chopped collard greens and vegetable broth (or water plus bouillon cube section). Add a pinch of salt, keeping in mind that your broth or bouillon cube may already have salt in it. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally.
  • Once it is simmering, turn the heat to medium low and cover. Remove lid to stir and check occasionally, making sure there is still enough liquid on the bottom and that the collards aren’t sticking. If they start to stick, lower the heat and add a tablespoon or two of water, as necessary.
  • Cover and continue cooking for 25 minutes, until the collard greens have become soft to the bite.

Nutrition

Calories: 62kcal | Carbohydrates: 8g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 2g | Sodium: 252mg | Potassium: 232mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 4895IU | Vitamin C: 35.9mg | Calcium: 234mg | Iron: 0.6mg
Tried this recipe?Tag @cadryskitchen on Instagram and hashtag it #cadryskitchen!

Originally posted July 2013. Content, photos, and recipe updated May 2019.

Garlicky vegan collard greens are slow cooked and tender. They make for a mouthwatering and nutrient-dense side dish. | cadryskitchen.com

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Posted On: May 8, 2019
Comment: Leave a Comment

Comments

  1. Mae says

    July 31, 2013 at 11:45 am

    Hi Cadry! I bought a bunch of collard greens for the first time yesterday to use in pesto, and I have a whole lot of it left, so I was trying to think of what to do with it, when I randomly stumbled on this post! My silly question for you is how big is a “bunch” to you? I couldn’t believe how huge the leaves are, and I have quite a bit of it left. It seems like the amount that is pictured in the pot that you have in this post is not as much as I have left. Do you have any sort of estimated guess on how many really big leaves you’d call a bunch? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Cadry says

      July 31, 2013 at 3:28 pm

      Hi, Mae! When I say “a bunch,” I’m referring to the way that the collards are bundled together at the grocery store. One bundle is one bunch. The amount of actual greens that you get from a bunch, though, can vary it seems, depending on how big of leaves you have. I just counted the amount of leaves in the bunch currently in my refrigerator, and there are eight very large leaves.

      This recipe is really forgiving. Just get rid of the center rib of the collards, chop the leaves, and sauté whatever amount of garlic you’d like in oil in a pot. Then add the leaves and enough broth (or water & bouillon cube) to cover the bottom of the pot, but not so much that it completely covers the greens themselves. (You want to kind of steam the greens, not boil them.) Follow the directions as directed above, and if the greens start to stick, add more water.

      Good luck! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Tracey says

    September 14, 2015 at 3:17 pm

    How do you make your plantains??

    Reply
    • Cadry says

      September 14, 2015 at 3:19 pm

      I just so happen to have a post about that! 🙂 How to make plantains: http://cadryskitchen.com/2014/11/15/make-sweet-fried-plantains/

      Reply
      • Tracey says

        September 14, 2015 at 4:22 pm

        You are amazing!!!

        Reply
        • Cadry says

          September 17, 2015 at 9:50 am

          Ha! Aren’t you sweet? 😀

          Reply
          • Tracey says

            September 17, 2015 at 9:57 am

            🙂

            Reply
  3. Tomas says

    September 15, 2018 at 5:43 am

    Googling around for new recipies im new going vegan and always seem to go hungry all the time.. 🙁
    I used to be a very big meat eater so its so hard to chug in like 2 entire plates of food just to not go hungry. I grow tired of eating when theres so much chewing involved.
    Now im on my 4th 100% vegan week.
    Relapsed into going back to meat multiple times when im just TOO hungry because im running out of ideas on what to eat.
    And i dont have many “staple foods”
    which i can make over and over and know how to vary them without growing tired of them.
    I always like kale and cooking kale with a lid on + water on a frying pan but sometimes i just keep failing and fry them and dry them out instead.
    I hope this recipe (low heat and with oil and increasing the cooking time to 25 minutes where as i usually did it in 10-15mins on high heat with water)
    please share any more recipies which for you are “staple”
    and has many variations, thank you very much 🙂
    / Struggling swedish vegan

    Reply
    • Cadry says

      September 22, 2018 at 8:04 am

      Hi, Tomas!

      I’m sorry to hear that you’re struggling with going vegan. It can be an adjustment at first to get used to cooking new things, especially after building up a lifetime of habits. I totally hear you on getting tired of chewing. I remember feeling that way too when I went vegetarian. It was a lot more produce than I was used to eating!

      The first thing I always recommend to people who are just going vegan is to look at the foods you used to make & love before you went vegan. Is there a way to veganize those things, so that you’re not making a new recipe every time? For me, it was easy to swap out beef for beans in tacos, lentils for meat in spaghetti, and tofu for meat in a stir-fry.

      Here are some other links that may help. Here are 40 recipes for new vegans. And here are 40 vegan resources that were written with new vegans in mind.

      Good luck to you, and please keep in touch!

      Reply
  4. David says

    January 1, 2020 at 10:14 am

    5 stars
    I love collard greens, and this recipe is my favorite way of preparing them!

    Reply
    • Cadry says

      January 2, 2020 at 9:47 am

      Yes! Collards are the best.

      Reply

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Hi, I'm Cadry Nelson. I'm the recipe creator, writer, and photographer behind Cadry's Kitchen.

Cadry's Kitchen is a vegan food blog featuring comfort food classics. Most recipes are ready in about 30 minutes.

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