Patti Labelle Collard Greens are related to kale, broccoli, and cabbage. These vegetables are packed with nutrients and health benefits. Nevertheless, people who do not love vegetables may tend to avoid these in their menus.
But if you try the Patti Labelle collard greens recipe, you’ll surely want to include the greens in your meal. In this article, we’ll share some tips to make collard greens more appetizing than ever. You’ll get to know everything from preparing to storing the greens in the right way.
Let’s get started without further ado.
An Overview of Patti Labelle Collard Greens
Before talking about the super delicious collard green recipe by Patti Labelle, let’s answer some more fundamental questions. Let’s start with- what exactly are collard greens?
Collards are a vegetable, more specifically, a member of the cabbage family. This vegetable comes with thick stems and large green leaves that most people remove before eating. And, the leafy parts are known as collard greens.
Cooking collard greens is mostly seen in Southern cuisine. Chefs love how the sturdy leaves hold up while cooking them for a long time. The leaves are usually eaten with braises and soups or simply in salads.
Now, you may ask, what do collard greens taste like?
Well, you’ll find people saying that they hate collard greens but do you know why? In most cases, it depends on the recipe or making process of the dish. If you just eat the leaves simmered in water, sauteed, or raw, chances are you’ll hate collard greens too.
But collard greens prepared by Patti Labelle recipe are completely different. She makes the dish loaded with flavor. You’ll love the salty, savory, smoky, and spicy collard greens if you just follow the right directions. You can also try Southern Belle Loaded Tea for lunch or dinner.
How to Clean Collard Greens
Cleaning the leaves is extremely necessary but annoying at the same time. For this, we’re going to share how you should cut and clean the leaves before cooking them.
Although how dirty the leaves are is dependent on where you buy the leaves, follow the steps below to wash the leaves:
- Remove the roots.
- Take cold water in a bowl and submerge collard greens.
- To let the grit free itself, swirl the leaves around.
- Drain the dirty water with a colander.
Keep doing the same thing until you see the water becomes clear.
Patti Labelle Collard Greens Recipe
Once the leaves are clean, it’s time to apply the magic tricks of Patti Labelle and enjoy the mouthwatering dish. You’ll need around 1 hour from the preparation to finish the cooking and this recipe makes 4 servings.
Ingredients
- Collard greens (stemmed and chopped): 2 pounds
- Turkey leg (smoked and cut into cubes): 1 pound
- Chicken stock: ¼ cup
- Seasoning salt
- Black pepper
- Kosher salt
- Grapeseed oil: 2 tablespoon
- Chopped onion: 2 tablespoon
Making Directions
- Take a large pot and heat grapeseed oil over medium heat.
- Saute onions in the oil until they’re tender.
- Add chicken stock, collard greens, pepper, kosher salt, and seasoning salt to the onion.
- Add the smoked turkey to the mixture.
- Lower the heat after covering the food.
- Cook for around 30 minutes. Let the leaves be tender and avoid making them too soft.
Serve the tasty collard greens with hot sauce if you want to!
Collard Greens Nutrition and Health Benefits
Not only collards, but most leafy greens are also high in fiber, folate, calcium, vitamins A, B6, C, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and other nutrients. But collard greens are probably the biggest sources of vitamin K which keeps our blood and bone health great.
Serving for 4
- Calories: 630,
- Fat: 36.4,
- Saturated Fat: 7.6,
- Cholesterol: 119.2,
- Sodium: 236.7,
- Carbohydrate: 35.8,
- Fiber: 13.8,
- Sugar: 5.5,
- Protein: 45.9
A fair amount of fiber in collard greens lowers cholesterol and helps in digesting foods. Worth mentioning that they are low-glycemic and packed with antioxidants.
Still, the nutrition availability depends on the way you eat the greens. You should cook them with minimal fat for the best results.
People often use the two terms ‘collard greens’ and ‘kale’ interchangeably but there are differences. Kale is another great source of vitamins and minerals but collard greens contain more calcium.
Overall, kale and collard greens are quite the same in their vitamin content, but collard greens contain a much higher amount of vitamin K than kale.
**Per cent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
What Are The Substitutes of Collard Greens?
Kale is the closest green to collard greens. So, you can simply consider using kale in a stew or soup for its textures and flavors.
If you want to wrap a sandwich in a leafy green, butter lettuce will work great. Although butter lettuce doesn’t taste like collard greens, the contents of your sandwich will be firmly in place.
Here are other alternatives to collard greens:
- Mustard greens
- Spinach
- Swiss chard
- Turnip greens
What’s The Best Way to Store Collard Greens?
About storing cooked collard greens, it’s okay to freeze them for an extended period.
But make sure you use a plastic bag to store them. Moreover, there should be no extra moisture in the bag as water may crystalize the greens while freezing.
And, about storing fresh collard greens, they can be in the refrigerator for 7 days.
Remember, you shouldn’t wash before you store fresh collard greens in the refrigerator. Otherwise, the greens may decay over time. Use an airtight plastic bag before placing them in the refrigerator.
Wash the greens before you cook them. But don’t forget to check if you’re moving with spoiled greens or not. Spoiled greens tend to be discolored, slimy, and soft. In the worst-case scenario, you may start getting bad smells from them.
Now, if you’re planning to store fresh greens in the freezer, the approach will be a bit different. In this case:
- Wash the greens and fill your sink with water. Then soak the greens for 10 minutes. It’s a must to remove all grit and dirt before you put them in the freezer.
- Cut the stems from the leaves. You can cut the leaf in any shape you want.
- Now, blanch the collard greens. Put the greens into boiling water, the process should take 3 minutes.
- Finally, get rid of excess moisture and put the blanched greens in an air-tight plastic container. And, place them in the freezer.
We recommend you blanch the greens because it will prevent them from enzyme actions and loss of flavor. Overall, it’ll clean the green surfaces well and stop them from decaying.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Should I soak collard greens before cooking?
Answer: It’s better to soak collard greens for 10 minutes rather than just cooking them right away. You can use a dash of salt to scrub the greens as well.
Question: How to keep collard greens from being bitter?
Answer: Braising collard greens help cut the bitterness. Also, it helps soften the tough leaves.
Question: Can collard greens prevent inflammation?
Answer: Yes. Collard greens help prevent cancer, toxication, and inflammatory properties.
Question: Do collard greens cause bloating?
Answer: Yes, only when you eat too many collard greens at a time. Because collard greens have a high amount of fiber which can cause gas or bloat. But as long as you eat them in moderation, that’s not a problem.
Question: Do collard greens help clean our systems?
Answer: Yes. Because of high sulfur-containing compounds in collard greens, they support the detoxification processes in our body.
