NOLA Recipes at Home: Southern Cooked Greens

How do you cook your greens? This has been the subject of great debate at the market lately now that collards and turnip greens are back in season. Everyone has their favorite way but if you’re looking for a new technique, try this recipe for Southern Cooked Greens. The bottle of Dixie beer it calls for makes it unmistakeably New Orleans cookin’.

Ingredients

* 1/2 pound bacon
* 3 cups chopped onions
* salt and pepper
* dash of Louisiana hot sauce
* 2 tablespoons minced fresh shallots
* 1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
* 1 12-ounce bottle Dixie Beer
* 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
* 1 tablespoon molasses
* 1 tablespoon soy sauce
* 6 pounds greens (collard, mustard, turnip, kale, or spinach), cleaned and stemmed

Directions

Fry bacon until it is crispy. Cut up bacon and place in a large pot along with some of the drippings. Add onions to pot and cook for about 6 to 7 minutes or until the onions are wilted. Season with salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Add shallots and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in beer, vinegar, molasses, and soy sauce. Add greens, about a third at a time, pressing the greens down as they start to wilt. Cook greens uncovered over low heat for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

To serve, mound greens in the center of a serving platter. Spoon cooking liquid over the top and serve.

Note: These are great served with meat (such as pork chops) arranged around the greens.

Serves 8

Recipe compliments of market shopper

Tagged as: Beer, Dixie, GoNOLA, Greens, New Orleans, NOLA, Recipes, Southern Cooked Greens