Collard, Mustard, Turnip Greens Recipe

When I think of turnip greens, I'm like a kid in a candy shop. Oh, how I love 'em. There's nothing like the smell of turnip greens, collards or mustard coming from the kitchen. You simply can not have real Southern food without them. I guess my favorite meal of all time would be fried chicken, black-eyed peas, cornbread and collards.

Turnip greens are probably the most popular in the South, but mustard and collards are also cooked often. Turnip greens are distinctive, but mild tasting while mustard is more pronounced. Collards are the mildest in my opinion. You may use the same procedure below for any of these delicious dishes. They are really simple to cook. Here's how:

Ingredients

2 1/2 lbs turnip, collard or mustard greens, washed and chopped into 1-in. pieces
3 slices bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
2/3 cup chopped onions
1 or 2 dashes cider or red wine vinegar

Directions

1. In a pot large enough to cook the greens, fry bacon.

2. Add the greens along with onions.

3. Cook, stirring with wooden spoon, until greens are coated with fat. Pour off excess fat.

4. Cover the greens with water and season with salt.

5. Bring to boil. Cover the pot, reduce heat, and simmer until tender.

Stir occasionally and add water if they threaten to scorch. When done, increase heat to med-high, stir often. Boil off nearly all the cooking liquid.

6. Add vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Serve very hot.
Serves 4

At the table, serve with a bottle of hot peppers that each person can use to pour some of the pepper juice on top of the turnip greens to their own taste.

The above recipe is the basic Southern Style turnip greens. Wanna spice it up a little? Make it a little distinctive? Here are some optional ingredients you might want to try.

The Chinese learned long ago the secret of combining sweet and sour. Pay attention all you novice cooks. Here's a secret you should remember.

"Combine sweet and sour in your dishes".

How do you do this? Simple. In any dish that is intended to be sweet (deserts), add a little salt when preparing. In any dish that is intended to be sour (or at least not sweet), add a little sugar. I like to use syrup or molasses instead of regular sugar.

So, when you make a cake, pie, ice cream, etc, add a touch of salt (most recipes call for this anyway). But, most recipes do NOT call for sugar in a non-sweet dish such as chili. Try it, add a little sweet to your chili and you will be amazed. Just don't overdo it. You only want a touch of sweet; you don't want a pronounced sweet flavor in your chili.

All of this, just to tell you to try adding a teaspoon of sugar to your turnip greens when you cook them.

So, now we come to the real recipe for cooking turnip greens that I use.

To the above recipe, I add:
1 tsp molasses
1 tsp garlic powder

I also like to combine turnip, collard and mustard greens in the same pot.

Try it, your family will love it. You may even get the little ones to eat their vegetables.