Last fall, we committed to taking a more “vegetable-first” approach to our meal planning. This lead us to an incredible bookstore, Omnivore Books, where we picked up three unique and diverse vegan cookbooks. Bryant Terry’s “Afro-Vegan” cookbook has introduced us to African, Caribbean, and American Southern flavors. We’ve had to adapt most of the recipes to be low-FODMAP friendly, but we accept that challenge with gusto because it produces incredible dishes like these savory and slightly sweet Slow-Braised Collard Greens. Terry’s original recipe calls for mustard greens, but our local store was out of stock. Collard greens worked amazingly well – no complaints from us!
Slow-Braised Collard Greens
Thank you to Bryant Terry for this recipe, from his cookbook “Afro-Vegan”. Savory and slightly sweet Slow-Braised Collard Greens are a terrific vegan side dish!
Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time55 mins
Total Time1 hr 5 mins
Servings: 4
Calories: 188kcal
Ingredients
Greens
- 1 pound collard greens stemmed and evenly chopped
- 1 tbsp kosher salt plus 1/2 tsp
- 1 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
- 1 tbsp minced ginger
- 4 cups vegetable stocks
Onions
- 3 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
- 3 bunches green onion sliced thin
- 2 tsp coconut sugar
- 6 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp water
Instructions
- Fill a large pot with water (10-12 cups) and bring to a boil over high heat. While the water is heating up, stem and chop the collard greens. After stemming, stack 4 collard leaves on top of each other and cut them into approximately 1 inch strips, and then cut the stacks of strips into approximately 2 inch segments. Repeat this with the remaining leaves.
- Add 1 tablespoon of kosher salt to the boiling water, and then gently lower the chopped greens into the water. Return to a boil and cook the greens uncovered until they’re soft, about 8 to 10 minutes. Once they’re soft, remove them from the water and drain them well in a colander.
- Warm the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the ginger and 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt and saute until the ginger is fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the collard greens and vegetable stock and increase the heat to high to bring to a boil. Once the stock is boiling, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the greens are super-tender, about 45 minutes.
- While the greens are simmering, prepare the green onions. Warm olive oil in a separate pan over medium-low heat. Add the onions and coconut sugar and saute until the onions are soft, about 10 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and water and cook until the onions are thoroughly coated, stirring often.
- To serve, portion the greens along with some of the simmering liquid into small bowls, and top with the cooked green onions.
Notes
This recipe originally called for mustard greens. Our store was out of stock, so we went with collard greens. If you opt for mustard greens, they won’t need as long to cook in the boiling water – 5 minutes instead of 10.
We substituted minced ginger for 1 large clove of garlic, to make this recipe low-FODMAP friendly. We also used green onions in place of 3 large yellow onions from the original recipe, for the onion topping.
Bryant Terry suggests topping the greens and onions with a scattering of minced jalapeno chile and hot-pepper vinegar. We chose not to do this because we were serving this alongside a super-hot recipe from Terry’s book, Curried Scalloped Potatoes.
