I’ve been on a kale kick lately, adding it to everything, from soups and salads to stir frys, not just for its versatility, but for its excellent nutrition. But, it occurred to me that kale, in all its forms but especially the black kale, in all its ribbed, bumpy glory, has been the undefeated champion of greens in my kitchen for quite awhile now. So, I’ve decided to stage a coup with some disgruntled greens that remain, as a whole, haplessly underwhelming – sometimes unknown – to the majority of the population, like the mustard and turnip green, and the hearty, very southern collard green.
Collards – derived from colewort, meaning “cabbage plant,” and known otherwise as the botanically boring tree-cabbage or nonheading cabbage – is a cool-season vegetable rich in the vitamins A, C and K, a bit of B, iron, folate, magnesium, potassium and calcium. Despite the collard’s popularity in raw food circles for its large, enveloping leaves and fibrous nature as a wrap in place of tortillas, the vitamins and minerals contained in the collard green are more accessible cooked than when raw (except for the heat intolerant Vitamin C), and the plant, too, when growing, fares best in warm weather, but still tolerates cold weather better than any other member of the cabbage family. Collard greens are traditionally used as a replacement for kale in Portuguese cuisine – the delicious caldo verde soup of collards, onions, potatoes – but they are best known as a popular food in Southern cooking, popular to the point where they are one of the three foods people immediately associate with Southern soul food – those iconic three of fried chicken, collard greens and black eyed
peas. In the South, collards, along with other bitter greens, are traditionally cooked with a fatty meat, ham hocks and other pork derivatives the most traditional, keeping the collards intact as the main object of attention; the pork meat not only lends a mellowing flavor to the normally astringent flavor of these greens, but also imparts an important digestive function: gelatin.
Broth made from meat and animal bones is a great source of sodium, chloride and iodine, as well as magnesium, potassium and important trace minerals. Broth made from fish carcasses and fish heads is also rich in additional substances that nourish the thyroid gland. Properly made, broth is also a rich source of gelatin, which research has shown to be an excellent aid to digestion and assimilation of cooked foods, even tough ones like the collard green. Unfortunately, when cooking collards (and other dark greens) nutrients are leached out, displaced instead into the cooking water. Most people, including myself, tend to throw this broth of sorts down the drain, without a second thought about what that greenish-yellow hue to the water might really mean. At least the Southerners know what it’s all about: this cooking liquid or “pot likker,” as it is called in Southern states, is often soaked up with a piece of hot cornbread. And, good thing too – not only is it choke full of nutrients, but when cooked with meat bones, it’s also full of gelatin and various amino acids. This creative use of broth has traditional roots in other countries, such as in the Ukraine, where Beet Kvass was traditionally ingested regularly – a digestive drink made from beets, whey, sea salt and water, and then fermented over a few days. Next time I make some collard greens with a bit of meat, I’ll make sure to keep an open mind about using all the ingredients – pot likker included.
This actually brings up an interesting point: why don’t we use everything from cooking – like carrot tops, animal hooves, broccoli stems, and, most of all, organ meats? Growing up with a mom who was born and raised in Mexico, I grew accustomed to hearing her confounded remarks about American food culture:
*referring to chicken heart* Don’t throw that away! That’s the best part! *nibbles on heart with the utmost satisfaction, murmuring a bit as she chews the very squishy organ, like biting into a tongue that cuts apart like ricotta cheese*
In Mexico we don’t waste a thing – we eat the meat, the skin, the liver, the heart, the brains, the lungs, toes… you name it, we’ve eaten it.
You don’t like the menudo?
It took awhile before I relished open experimentation with sweetbreads and other organs, the best of which, I think, is the liver, of which my mom couldn’t agree more. She loves liver, which is the opposite stance that Mimi, my boyfriend’s mother takes, insisting that the liver is “full of toxins,” it being the filtering organ through which wastes are disposed. I’m more inclined to agree with the eating of organs, if not just for the flavor, then for the fact that foods steeped in cultural tradition – in this case Mexican – tend to be foundational foods for a reason. Foods that trace back years in a culture’s antiquity have stood the test of time usually because a) they’re indigenous to the region, and b) they provide vital nutrition of some kind. Plus, it’s hard to imagine that our hominid ancestors would have nitpicked over their latest kill, deciding to forgo the organs in favor of the muscle tissue they’d reap from their next kill in, oh, who knows when. Right, like they’d take that chance. Oh, and guess what vitamin flourishes in organ meats? That’s right, Vitamin D, only the most vital vitamin to have slipped under the noses of Nutritional Scientists, who recently discovered it to be incredibly important, if not the most important vitamin for all our bodily workings. And, coincidentally enough, we all have ridiculously low amounts of Vitamin D in our systems, even with adequate sun exposure. Just as luck would have it, I’m sure collard greens have some devastatingly crucial apex in Southern cooking nutrition. What do you have to say about that, Michael Pollan? But, that’s a debate for another post – back to collard greens.
I find that collard greens have a taste unlike other bitters. Mustard greens I still have to develop a taste for- they’re very, very bitter, and must be cooked in the right way, absolutely never eaten raw – and Kale is only slightly bitter, more tart really, that quickly mellows into something more like arugula or baby greens. Plus, kale can be eaten raw by manually breaking down its cellulose a bit, through physically manhandling it with some fat – I like avocado – to soften it. It makes it quite palatable. Collards, on the other hand, must be cooked, or at least that’s what I believe. Collards are very tough, and very fibrous, and this physical mashing technique doesn’t work as effectively as it does on kale, with its softer leaf. Collard leaves can withstand a lot of external punishment, so it’s best to submerge them in a few inches of boiling water, in a longer blanch than usual, to break down its hard, cellulose exterior, and make the nutrients viable. Kale, I think, tastes better with a quick blanch, as well, but collards are greatly improved by a long blanch of 8 minutes or more – it sounds like a lot, but it’s well worth it.
The great thing about the sheer immensity of collard leaves is that they make excellent wraps, which I like to pair with an asian-inspired dipping sauce. For this dinner, I made sure to de-stem the leaves, then blanch them whole until they were bright green and pliable, but still sturdy enough to not rip apart upon rolling. You may fill these wraps with whatever you please – julienned zucchini with basil, some heirloom tomatoes, brown rice and sprouts would be nice – but I chose to make a raw pate of carrots and almonds, with a zesty soy based sauce accompaniment. Depending on their size, they’re quite filling, but they’re great as appetizers whenever you want a showstopping, and still healthy starter for guests at your next dinner party.
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Collard Green Wraps
1 bunch collard greens, de-stemmed, cut down the middle in half, and blanched
2 zucchini, julienned
5 basil leaves, chiffonade
Pate:
1 cup almonds
1 tbsp ginger, freshly grated
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp sea salt
3 carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1/4 cup yellow onion, chopped
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 cup raisins
ground pepper to taste
Process almonds into a powder. Set aside. Process ginger, garlic and salt, then add the carrots, celery and onion and pulse into small pieces. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, raisins and almond powder back in to mix well. Place a heaping spoonful – approximately 1/2 cup – on one end of a collard leaf, add some slivers of zucchini and basil, then roll neatly all the way to the other end, like a sushi roll. Repeat until all the leaves are used – it’s ridiculously easy. Serve with the following sauce and enjoy a delicious and healthy meal!
Dipping Sauce:
equal amounts of tamari and rice vinegar
splash of sesame oil
splash of chili oil
fresh lime zest
chopped scallion
toasted sesame seeds
finely minced garlic toasted slightly in sesame oil
Toss together. Experiment with the flavors. See what you like best.
