Our Caribbean Collard Greens put an island spin on this Southern staple. They’re nutritious, flavor-packed, and super easy to whip up!
Collard greens are ubiquitous here in the American South. That’s good news for us, because we have an unabashed love affair with collard greens, y’all! Hand to God, we can demolish several pounds of the stuff in a week. And so, we could not resist fusing Southern and Caribbean flavors for our fiery island twist on collard greens.
For the uninitiated, Southern-style collard greens are anything but vegan. For starters, the greens are typically cooked in pork fat. Ham hocks or bacon are often added, and chicken stock is the braising liquid of choice.
Since we don’t dine on swine around these parts, we cook our collards in vegetable oil, use smoked paprika to replicate the cured/smoked flavor of the aforementioned pork products, and add black-eyed peas for protein. We also use vegan chicken bouillon cubes and water in place of chicken broth.
Caribbean curry powder, a Scotch bonnet pepper, and ginger give our collards the island treatment. You can enjoy this easy one-pot dish as a side or as a main course served with rice.
Jump to:
🤔 WHAT ARE COLLARD GREENS?
Here in our home state of Texas, collard greens are the OG kale. From cafeteria-style eateries to work potlucks and backyard barbecues, the South is decidedly Collard Country.
Although kale has more mass appeal nationwide, kale and collard greens have a lot in common. Both are technically cabbages in the Brassica family and both pack a nutritional punch. In fact, collards greens win in the nutritional battle on a couple of fronts: they have have 18 percent more calcium and twice the protein and iron per serving compared to kale!
And while we love us some kale, we can’t help but wonder why the leafy green gets an “invitation” to the proverbial party, while its cousin—the collard green—is still waiting on that wax-sealed invite? The two greens inhabit opposite poles of the socio-economic food chain. Where kale is the exclusive domain of the Lululemon crowd, collard greens seem to belong to a humbler, more Southern—and dare we say, more melanated—demographic.
Well, we say the hell with that noise! The two greens are nutritionally similar and culinarily interchangeable. So decolonize your plate, and grab a bunch of collard greens during your next grocery run!
🥬 COLLARD GREENS VERSUS CALLALOO
Collard greens are not found on the Caribbean Islands. Instead, the leafy green dish of choice is callaloo. And not all callaloo is the same. The Caribbean country you find yourself in will determine which vegetable is used to prepare callaloo. While callaloo can be made from taro, dasheen, tannia, amaranth, or yautia root, the preparation is usually similar to that of Southern collard greens.
If you’ve been following our blog, you know we can’t get enough of Caribbean flavors. So it was only fitting that we’d come up with our very own Caribbean spin on this Southern classic.
📝 INGREDIENTS
- Vegetable oil: a neutral-flavored fat to cook our collard greens
- Onion, ginger and garlic: fragrant aromatics
- Caribbean curry powder: the seasoning blend that give our dish its signature island flavor. We love to use Jamaican or Trini curry powder in this recipe. Caribbean curry powders contain more turmeric than Madras curry powder and are generally less spicy. Additionally, Allspice is a signature ingredient in Jamaican curry powder. You can purchase Caribbean curry powder at an Afro-Caribbean grocery store or online. (Note: Madras curry powder is not actually a thing in India; it is a British approximation of Indian flavors.)
- Smoked paprika: paprika is a key ingredient in Southern-style collard greens.
- Collard greens: You can’t make a collard green dish without collard greens!
- Water and vegan chicken bouillon: used in place of chicken broth as our braising liquid. The vegan chicken bouillon flavors the water with much-needed umami.
- Scotch bonnet pepper: the Caribbean hot pepper of choice. First off, Scotch bonnets are hot—roughly 40 times hotter than an average jalapeño pepper. But do not be deterred by this information, Dear Reader! Flavor wise, Scotch bonnets have a beautiful almost citrusy flavor, and the pepper in this recipe is used whole and then discarded—similar to the way in which you’d use a bay leaf. This adds wonderful flavor and background heat. (Rest assured that the pith of a hot pepper contains the highest concentration of capsaicin, a capsicum’s heat-producing compound.) You can find these fiery flavor bombs in an Afro-Caribbean grocery store, but habaneros make good stand-ins.
- Salt, freshly cracked black pepper: season our dish
- Creole seasoning: a classic Southern seasoning blend. We use Tony Chachere’s.
- Organic granulated sugar: to balance the savory/spicy elements in our dish
- Apple cider vinegar: a Southerner’s go-to acid
- Red pepper flakes: used in Southern-style collard greens for added heat
- Black-eyed peas: the preferred legume in Southern/Soul Food dishes. We use black-eyed peas as a protein-rich substitute for the traditional pork product additions to collard greens.
💡 RECIPE TIPS
- Clean the collard greens thoroughly: Submerge collards in a bowl or sink filled with water. Dunk & swish the collards around vigorously to remove the grit. Do this several times. Then give them a good rinse under running water.
- Chop the collard greens: Fold a leaf in half and slice off the stem. Then stack a few halved leaves and slice them into 1-2” wide strips. Then stack the strips and chop into bite-sized pieces. Repeat with the remaining leaves.
🔪 STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS
***Check out our recipe video below!***
- Sauté onion and ginger until onion is golden brown, about 5-7 minutes.
- Add garlic, curry powder and smoked paprika and cook until garlic is fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add collard greens and Scotch bonnet and cook 1-2 minutes.
- Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer for 20-25 minutes.
- Adjust seasoning, remove Scotch bonnet and serve with cooked white rice (optional).
❤️ WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS RECIPE
- Flavor-packed
- Nutritious
- Spicy
- A simple one-pot dish
DID YOU MAKE OUR CARIBBEAN COLLARD GREENS?
Did you make this recipe? We’d love to hear about it! Please comment and leave a 5-star🌟 rating below. Share your dish with us on Instagram and tag us @plantbased.passport. We would love to seeing your delicious creations! Still hungry? Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Pinterest for more global vegan recipes and travel tips!🍴✈️
💕 MORE CARIBBEAN RECIPES YOU’LL LOVE:
👩🏽🍳 RECIPE
CARIBBEAN COLLARD GREENS
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 tablespoon ginger minced
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tablespoon Caribbean curry powder we use Jamaican or Trini curry powder
- ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 lb collard greens washed thoroughly and chopped (See recipe notes)
- 1 ½ cups vegetable broth
- 1 teaspoon vegan chicken bouillon paste or substitute 1 cube vegan chicken bouillon
- 1 whole Scotch bonnet pepper or substitute habanero
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon Creole seasoning we used Tony Chachere’s
- ½ tablespoon organic granulated sugar
- ½ tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- ⅛ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 14-oz can of black eyed peas drained
- Cooked white rice to serve (optional)
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and ginger, hit them with a pinch of salt to draw out the moisture, and cook until onion is golden brown.
- Add garlic, curry powder, and smoked paprika and cook until garlic is fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add collard greens and Scotch bonnet pepper, and cook 1-2 minutes.
- Then add broth, vegetable bouillon, Creole seasoning, salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, apple cider vinegar, sugar, and black-eyed peas. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer. Cook for 20-25 minutes. Adjust seasoning, remove hot pepper, and enjoy!
Notes
- Clean the collard greens thoroughly: Submerge collards in a bowl or sink filled with water. Dunk & swish the collards around vigorously to remove the grit. Do this several times. Then give them a good rinse under running water.
- How to chop the collard greens: Fold a leaf in half and slice off the stem. Then stack a few halved leaves and slice them into 1-2” wide strips. Then stack the strips and chop into bite-sized pieces. Repeat with the remaining leaves.
This was my second time making this and it was so so delicious and comforting! Thank you for the amazing recipe!
Really appreciate the kind feedback! We’re so happy you enjoyed the recipe!
My new fave way to collard greens!
Caribbean flavors are straight fire. This was so yummy.
I love this website!
Love this new way of making Collard greens. This is going ti be a hit qhen I have everyone try to for Thanksgiving.
We’re really happy to hear that! Thank you so much for sharing.