Meatless Smoked Collard Greens Recipe (Vegan Soul Food)
Hey Friends!
I have been trying to slowly but surely, eliminate meat from my diet and incorporate more plant-based dishes into my routine.
The only issue that I've been running into is the fact that most of my favorite recipes included some form of meat.
Now I am willing to give up my pork bacon, ham, and steak but one thing that I definitely was not giving up on was my collard greens.
I've been eating collard greens ever since I was a little kid and it's just something that I wasn't willing to give up. Plus the fact that it's a vegetable you know, it’s packed with vitamins and minerals essential to a healthy diet.
Traditionally, in my family, collard green family recipes were made using meat like smoked turkey necks or ham hocks to give the greens their really good, savory, rich flavor.
I really wanted to find a way that I could preserve that great meaty smoked yummy goodness flavor that collard greens is known for but take the actual meat out of it.
I have a really quick and simple recipe that I think you guys would like, especially if you're a baby vegan like I am and you're not really ready to give up meat completely.
I have to be totally honest here I cheated a little bit by using chicken stock (or chicken bouillon) which is a form of chicken stock that you basically put the powder into the water and it creates like a chicken flavor just because, again I'm not ready to give the meat up completely, but it’s a step.
If you are someone who is completely past the point of consuming meat, you could substitute for vegetable broth which I do for my husband.
So for this recipe, you will need:
INGREDIENTS
1 /2 yellow onion
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 bag or 2 bunches of collard greens. (I like to buy mine bagged, prewashed, and cut because it saves time)
Liquid smoke (very important for this recipe)
2 chicken bouillon packets by Goya equal to 2 cups of chicken stock OR 2 cups of vegetable stock
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional items are crushed red pepper if you like a little kick and distilled white vinegar.
PREPARATION
Remove the skin and the ends from your onion, go ahead and half it because we're only going to use half of the onion for this recipe. Mince that onion into small pieces and set aside.
Next, move on to your cloves of garlic, go ahead and mince those as well.
Get your pot ready, by heating 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat.
Add your onions and sauté those onions down a little bit with that olive oil stirring occasionally so that they don't stick to the bottom of the pot or burn. Let them get a little tender.
Once the onions have a little color to them, go ahead and add in your garlic and sauté that as well for 2-3 minutes. Be careful not to burn your garlic.
Next, add in your chicken bullion, chicken stock, or vegetable stock. Stir and bring this soup mixture to a boil. At this point, it's time to season your water up and just get it pretty much the way that you want your greens to taste. Add a few dashes of the liquid smoke. This is completely up to you it just kind of goes with your taste, if you want a little kick, I would suggest adding crushed red pepper. Moreover, add your salt and pepper at this time and just taste that water, while checking it to make sure that it tastes good.
Go ahead and add your greens into the pot, tossing the collard greens in that flavored water. Make sure that all of your greens are saturated with that water mixture because it's gonna help for them to soak in all that flavor and meltdown really well.
Cover your pot and cook it down over medium heat for about an hour and a half, or until they are nice and tender, not crunchy or mushy.
At this point, they are done. You could go ahead and add in about a teaspoon of vinegar just to give it an extra flavor or serve it as is.
I hope that you guys really enjoy this recipe, it’s definitely a staple in my house!
If you do, comment down below to let me know how it was!
Watch me make this recipe in the video below.