Collard greens side dishes

Collard greens are not a familiar vegetable in Korean cuisine. However, since the vegetable is nutritious, healthy, and delicious, I wanted to use it in my cooking. First I tried to make kimchi with it, but it turned out too tough. Then I tried cooked collard greens at a BBQ restaurant in New York and I enjoyed the taste a lot. I wanted to develop a recipe that fits the Korean taste.

The first collard green recipe is based on an authentic Korean dish. I used to use napa cabbage leaves or radish leaves instead of collard greens. If I were still living in Korea, I would never think about using collard greens for the recipe. Since I am living in the USA, getting collard greens is easier than getting napa cabbage or radish leaves, and they are always cheap.

This recipe worked perfectly, even with the stems. When the stems are cooked they’re soft and crunchy just like broccoli stems.

In my second collard green recipe, I used roasted cashew nuts to make a milky broth. This is a completely vegetarian side dish. Adding a little bit of honey and vinegar worked perfectly. You could use this as a side dish for roasted turkey or chicken, fried chicken, and BBQ.

I made these dishes for my friends and got great feedback. Make both versions and let us know which one you prefer. A year ago, when I posted 2 kinds of soybean sprout soup: spicy or non-spicy, I ran a poll to see which one my readers preferred. The result shows more people prefer spicy to the non-spicy version.

Korean-style collard greens side dish

Ingredients

1 pound of collard greens, kosher salt, garlic, onion, dried anchovies, soybean paste, and water.

Directions

1. Boil water in a large pot.
2. Cut off the top tough part of the collard greens, and arrange the leaves side by side stems parts and leaf parts.
3. Add a handful of salt to the boiling water.
4. Put the collard greens stem-first in boiling water and cook for 1 minute.
5. Submerge the collard greens in the water by pressing them down with a wooden spoon.
6. Close the lid and cook for 3 minutes.
7. Drain the collard greens and rinse them in cold water a couple of times.
8. Drain the water and chop the leaves into small pieces.
9. Put them in a wok or cooking pot.
10. Add 3 cloves of minced garlic, 7 large dried anchovies (after heads and guts are removed), ¼ cup of soybean paste, ¼ cup chopped onion, and 1½ cup water.
11. Close the lid and bring to a boil.
12. 10 mnutes later, open the lid and mix it with a spoon and cook another 10 minutes.
13. Transfer it to a serving plate and serve with rice.

Maangchi’s vegetarian collard greens side dish

Ingredients

1 pound of collard greens, garlic, olive oil, roasted cashew nuts, water, kosher salt, honey, vinegar.

Directions

1. Boil water in a large pot.
2. Cut off the top tough part of the collard greens, and arrange the leaves side by side stems parts and leaf parts.
3. Add a handful of salt to the boiling water.
4. Put the collard greens stem-first in boiling water and cook for 1 minute.
5. Submerge the collard greens in the water by pressing them down with a wooden spoon.
6. Close the lid and cook for 3 minutes.
7. Drain the collard greens and rinse them in cold water a couple of times.
8. Drain the water and chop the leaves into small pieces.
9. Put them in a wok or cooking pot
10. Blend ⅓ cup roasted cashew nuts and 1½ cup water with a blender for a minute.
11. Add it to the pot.
12. Add 3 cloves of minced garlic, 2 ts kosher salt, 1 tbs olive oil, 1 tbs honey (or sugar) and 1 tbs vinegar.
13. Mix it with a spoon well and bring to a boil over high heat.
14. 10 mnutes later, open the lid and mix it with a spoon and cook another 10 minutes.
15. Transfer it to a serving plate and serve with rice.
16. Serve with main dish such as roasted meat or BBQ.