What is the best way to cook collard greens?

Drop them in boiling water, then turn down the heat for about 15 minutes, similar to cooking ears of corn.

Generally collards have been overcooked in American cuisine. Your method is preferred for preserving nutrition and flavor, but you may want to try blanching the greens before drying and sauteing them. I like to throw in a couple of sliced garlic cloves, and a little bit of red pepper flakes, along with salt and both black and white ground pepper.

@pdworkin yes, all that , and some hickory smoked bacon or ham bits.

(I prefer Tasso.)

Slice into strips (throw away stems. and steam for a while. Then sauté w. olive oil and garlic.

You can cook other greens the same way…kale, beet tops, mustard greens, spinach.

Also you can add some slivers of any greens to soup.

mix the greens with mustard and turnip greens. cook down in chicken broth with smoked turkey tail or necks. season the water or broth well. hook up the broth with onions and peppers, maybe even tomato at the end.

I do the same as @gailcalled .

Slice them, steam them for a bit, then saute in olive oil and garlic.
Also if you add soy sauce and teriyaki sauce it can be great.
You can also fry with some bacon to make it test better too.

For some strange reason, after reading these comments I am craving collard greens. How strange…..

Here’s the recipe from the most recent Cook’s Country, entitled Braised Hearty Greens.

4 TB butter
½ red onion, sliced thin
2½ lbs hearty greens (collard, kale, mustard, turnip), stemmed and chopped
1 C low-sodium chicken broth
1 TB brown sugar
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
2 TB cider vinegar

1. Simmer greens: melt 2 TB of butter in a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Cook onion until softened, about 5 minutes. Add half of greens (or all, if they fit), broth, sugar, salt and cayenne. Cover and cook until greens are beginning to wilt, about 1 minute. Stir in remaining greens (if needed), then cook, covered, stirring occasionally, over medium-low heat until completely tender, about 30 minutes.

2. Finish cooking: remove lid and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until liquid is nearly evaporated, about 10 minutes. Off heat, stir in remaining butter and vinegar. Serve.

I make some slammin’ collard greens, @occ.

Butter (or olive oil) in skillet, garlic, a little onion. Slice greens into strips, and sauté on high heat, stirring infrequently.

Then, add maybe 1/8” of water into the skillet, salt heavily, and cover mostly. Let the greens steam.

Finish (most importantly) with lemon.

Nomnomnomnomnomnom.

@evegrimm: Speaking of grim, I question the butter, salt and brown sugar on any greens. Wouldn’t that make them taste too much like cake? I thought all sauted greens were supposed to be mildly punitive.

@andrew: You use my method, only backwards. It looks worth trying.

@gailcalled Incidentally, the method also works really, really well with asparagus and brussel sprouts. And even better with stock than water.

I just bumped into a woman at our local food coop; she is mixing red leaf lettuce and snippets of raw kale for her salad tonight. She says that if you cut the pieces small enough, you can eat them raw…my kind of cook.

That reminded me of a great mix a friend of mine did. Cabbage and Kale cooked a bit. It was so good!

Another delicious mix is steamed cauliflower florets and baby Brussell sprouts. We seasoned with a few herbs and some Bragg. But sauted garlic and mild onions in EVOO enhances everything except chocolate cake.