January 30, 2014 January 30, 2014/ Morgan
Collard greens are currently my ultra-favorite green. I love kale, don’t get me wrong, but I’m totally feeling sick of it. I need variety and MORE greens anyway! And collards? They are amazing vegetables. I usually cook them with a smokey undertone flavor (smoked paprika, liquid smoke or chipotles) but I was thinking that they needed a whole new game.
So these are easy as can be and get loads of flavor from the toasted sesame seeds. You don’t need a lot of TOASTED sesame seeds for flavor so they are my go to in Asian cooking. They are easy to toast yourself at home but you can buy them toasted if you want to. (Growing up I didn’t know they had any flavor at all because I only saw them on my hamburger buns!)
It takes about 12 minutes to cook these not counting the time it takes for the water to boil to steam the greens so you can throw this together REALLY quickly for dinner. They make a great side to vegan burgers and fries or they still taste good with baked beans and cornbread!
- 1 large bunches collard greens
- 1 clove garlic, finely minced or grated with microplane
- 1 Tablespoon tamari or soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds* you can toast your own or buy toasted sesame seeds by the bag
Wash your collard greens, remove the stems and chop the leaves into bite sized pieces. Now get out your steamer (my favorite is my flexible silicon one!) and place it in a pot with water filled up to right underneath it. Place the pot on the stove, add the greens and bring the water to a boil. Once boiling put on the lid and turn the heat down to medium low. Steam the greens for about 10 minutes. Once done take them out and let them cool until they are cool enough to handle. I like to squeeze any excess moisture out.
Add your collard greens, garlic, tamari and toasted sesames to a large non-stick skillet over high heat. Cook for 2-3 minutes just to cook the garlic. Remove from the heat and eat up! (Okay, maybe let them cool for a minute before shoveling into your mouth!) Don’t forget to bring the sriracha for mine!!
*To toast the sesame seeds – place the seeds in a skillet over medium high heat. Make sure to stay with the pan because this should take less than 2 minutes. Shake the pan back and forth over the heat as the seeds start to brown. Some may pop up and out of the pan if you’re not careful! Once they are nice and brown add the collard greens, tamari and garlic to the pan and cook the same as above.