COLLARD GREENS are a food I really crave at times, for their vitamins and minerals and fiber, yes...but mainly for their Taste...which is the Taste of the Growing Green of the South of this United States...Humble they appear: Proud they are....

COLLARD GREENS

Well, first, you need to purchase a large bunch of very fresh, large leaved collard greens - not rubbery or wiltey, and rinse them under cold water to get the dirt and sand off, and then chop them into about the size of dollar bills...drain em in collander. Saute, in olive oil, one large yellow onion, diced, two cloves of garlic, diced, until translucent light gold-brown...add four of five tomatoes, diced, or a fourteen ounce can of diced tomatoes, and a cup of vegetable broth...season with 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, a pinch of marjaram, a pinch of cumin, salt and pepper to taste, and a teaspoon of file' (sassafras), bring to the start of a boil, then add the chopped greens in and cook at a simmer for about fifteen minutes or so, at low heat - enough for a slow simmer, stirring occasionally. This is without meat, but you can add meats, like roast pork, or ham, or sausage, or bacon, or even chicken, all diced up. But, don't add them until the dish is about 1/3 cooked, for flavor. If the meat is salty, then don't add extra salt to the cookin'....In the last five minutes, stir in two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar and two teaspoons of brown sugar, if you want. I do!!! You can also add tobasco sauce to taste, if you want em more 'hot'...I don't!!!

I know it's very popular to use Kale lately, instead of Collards, or to mix the greens together, or to add some mustard or beet greens:  but, you know, that's not Cajun. Cajun is Straight "Greens" and by that they mean Collards, and only Collards. Collards are the easiest Greens to raise...They grow high and big and you gotta pick them often, cuz they are prolific! They last out from Spring through the first few frosts, too, real well...if you cover them with plastic during cold times, they'll last most all winter or so....replant in the Spring, tho, cuz they'll be too tough after that...lay the old ones down in the rows, so all those minerals in them will return to the soil...they compost well any way you do em in....

Here is their Poem...

Collard Greens: Humble -
Still, not bowed before any -
Full of Sturdy Life....