Cooking with Collard Greens

Zoey is up and helping in the kitchen tonight! Here she checks the freshness of the collard greens I brought home. This is my second time cooking with collard greens in my attempt to try foods that I thought were only for pet rabbits.

I didn't taste the collard greens raw after being traumatized by a similar incident with Kale. Instead I chopped it up and steamed it a bit before adding it to my dish. Success!

I found the recipe for "Spicy White Bean and Sweet Potato Soup with Collard Greens" in Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker, which my mom gave me as I was learning to master the art of slow cooking. I was a little slow-cooker shy after my first few attempts which lead to mushy bland vegetables. This cookbook has helped inspire some new ideas for me and as you can see, the soup with collard greens turned out great! I served it over some slow-cooked pearl barley.

This slow cooker actually came from a mad dash on a freezing morning after Thanksgiving back in Montana. I was just gaining some confidence in the kitchen and I was ready to add a new tool to my expanding collection. So there I was, at 5am standing in a long line with the $9.99 slow cooker clutched to my chest and the woman in front of me asked if it was all I was getting. When I said yes, she looked at me like I was a little crazy and as she read the box aloud to herself she said "Oh, you can put it in the dishwasher, I guess that is worth getting up before 5am for". I didn't have a dishwasher at the time, and only the price had factored into my consideration, but it is still one of the best kitchen investments I have made. And I always laugh a little every time I use it because I think of that morning and looking back, it was a little bit crazy.