25 Collard Green Recipes to Keep in Your Back Pocket

Collard greens have reigned supreme in the South for centuries, but we think it’s time they go national. Packed with calcium, potassium and folate, they also maintain their integrity when cooked—you won’t have that phenomenon of 10 cups shrinking down to two tablespoons, like you do with some other beloved greens that we won’t mention. A member of the cabbage family, collards can be deeply bitter—a selling point to those of us who love bitter greens—but they also become quite mild depending on their preparation, and pair with pork like they were invented for that reason. So while collards may have become the official vegetable of the state of South Carolina in 2011, we’re feeling like this is the year that they take the whole country.

Here collard greens are transformed into an easy side that goes with absolutely everything—barbecue, soul food, steak dinner, pork chops, bean stew, and on and on. Bacon does double-duty, its fat lending body and silkiness to the cooked greens, and its crispiness making these the kind of veggies that everyone will be happy to eat.

Here’s some Southern comfort, served by the bowlful. Though Kardea Brown bills it as a “clean-out-the-fridge” soup, it’s tasty enough to warrant shopping for the exact ingredients at least once, before you start riffing with your own leftovers.

Trisha Yearwood pulls a mad genius move by fitting these two-bite quiches with crust made from—wait for it—cornflakes crushed with bacon fat and cheddar. Now, if that isn’t the ideal base for a creamy collard green quiche, we don’t know what is.

There’s a lot to surprise in this salad, which features two veggies—collards and green tomatoes—that you rarely see served raw. Tossed with bacon, carrot ribbons, and pimientos, the salad piques the appetite and brightens up any plate, both colorwise and flavorwise.