Southern style collard greens braised in the slow cooker or crock pot with bits of smoked ham until very tender and flavorful.

Crock Pot Collard Greens

By Sue Lau |  Palatable Pastime

As New Year’s Day approaches, and our minds turn back to traditional foods, we may wish to be auspicious about the coming year and choose to eat foods which are symbolic of good luck and prosperity.  Regardless of whether we are superstitious or not, it can be about starting off remembering our culinary roots. For this type of Southern braised green, which can be symbolic of money or cash, in particular culinary heritage, it is also traditional, and I am a person steeped in tradition.

I have been making greens in the crock pot for over ten years. Before that, I was a slave to the stove. I’d had an *attitude* about crock pots and had no use for them. But, as I came around to it, I found they do very well making certain soups, chili and stews, besides long-braised meats like pork shoulder or chuck roast and the occasional pot of beans. And…

This makes an amazing mess of greens.

I still have an attitude about them regarding the cooking of other cuts of meats, like pork chops or chicken. That may never change, but…in the meantime, let’s make a pot of collards!

For greens like collards, I like them Southern style, which requires a bit of cooking. I have to admit I don’t like having to tend that many pots on the stove that much, so when I make greens and have time, I like to start them in the morning for the evening meal.

Use what greens you have- collards, mustard, turnip, kale…

I often make several different kinds of greens together, mixing collards with kale or mustard or turnip greens. I don’t use spinach or chard in the braised greens because I don’t think their tender character stands up well to braising.

The seasoning I use varies a little bit as well. My greens usually aren’t made vegetarian, although they can be. Usually I will add some type of smoked meat for added flavor and among these are things like smoked turkey wings or drumsticks, bacon, smoked pork shoulder, smoked pork neck bones, smoked ham, ham bones, country ham, or ham hocks. You can even add things like salt pork or side pork, but it won’t add any smoky flavor. What I use depends mostly on what I have already on hand, or if I have to buy something, whatever seemed the best buy at the time. Most things work well, so I am not apt to buy something when it is not priced to sell.

Use whatever smoked meat you have too—

The amount of seasoning I use meat-wise varies a little bit as well. I will throw in a ham hock or turkey drumstick or wing and not bother to weigh it. It will “just do“.  As for the other things, I often use between 4-8 ounces of something except for the country ham or salt pork which I will use a little less to make sure the greens don’t come out too salty. You can mix the meat seasonings if you have a “little of this” and a “little of that“, especially where ham bones and cut up ham is concerned.

In general with my Southern cooking where I use meats as seasonings, I follow pretty much the same idea as i do with the greens. So if you are braising cabbage or making country style green beans, or cooking up a pot of beans, the same ideas of using meats this way will apply. As you become adept at southern cooking you may find you keep a regular supply of these kind of meats around for these purposes. The best thing about that is that most of the time, it is very economical. Well, except the times when the market wants way too much and you must pass it by. It’s not always a matter of having the money to pay- it’s the principle behind it.

The crock pot I use in this recipe is a large oval 5-quart one. I call for about 8 cups of greens which is 1-2 bunches of greens or maybe three, depending on how big the bunches are. Once you have made this a couple of times you will know how much will work for you. You won’t have to use a 5-quart crock for this as there is nothing special about that. It’s just that is how much it takes for me to loosely fill up the crock before it begins to wilt down. You can easily use other sizes of crocks and just fill them up. The amount of meat seasoning will be “more or less” meaty depending on how much you add. The amount of cooking liquid is really approximate and isn’t going to change how the greens cook (unless all of it somehow evaporates) and will just give a different amount of pot liquor (cooking juices) at the end, which are wonderful in themselves spooned over a piece of corn bread. I have actually heard some people claim that the pot liquor is just marketing hype but no. It’s not. And it is really quite healthy, chock full of vitamins. So if you don’t use it on your corn bread, by all means, please do save it for cooking soup or anything else you can drop it into. It freezes well.

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