Collard Greens With Molasses, Beer & Bacon - Video Recipe

Bitter greens are sweet when the Cheapest Chef takes over in the kitchen. Slow-cooked until tender with a rich Pot Liquor flavored with beer, vinegar, bacon, onion, garlic, and molasses, it's a great side dish loaded with good stuff.

I usually get my cooked greens from Chef Marilyn at Soul Food Express down the street on Crenshaw Blvd., but sometimes I want to go extra cheap and load up my plate. My local Latin market sells collard and mustard greens in 99-cent bundles, and two will make enough for 4 servings!

My recipe is simple and adaptable, but you do have to slow-cook them for an hour and a half, and the aroma may drive you crazy with anticipation. With greens, the longer you cook them the better. You can cook collard and mustard greens together.

The addition of molasses makes for a complex flavor profile -- you can substitute maple syrup if that's what you have on hand. (A good pairing is with my Mom's Jambalaya - click here for her recipe video.)

This recipe calls for sauteed bacon, but you can keep it vegetarian and leave it out - add a few drops of Liquid Smoke.

I like to cook with beer, and you can use any kind -- dark, malt liquor, or light. So get a 24-ouncer from your corner liquor store; get cooking, and save half for yourself!

Collard Greens With Molasses, Beer & Bacon  - Video

Play it here. The video runs 3 minutes, 26 seconds.

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.

Ingredients (4 servings)
2 bundles of Greens - including Collard, Turnip, and Mustard Greens. Okay to combine any type.
12 oz. can of Beer
3 slices of Bacon - Substitute with Liquid Smoke for a vegan version.
1 whole Onion - chopped.
1 tablespoon chopped Garlic - fresh or jar.
1 tablespoon Vinegar - white, wine, or apple cider.
1 tablespoon Molasses - or maple syrup.
Hot Sauce - about 1/2 tsp. or to your tolerance - optional.
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Directions
 Prepare greens by washing, slicing off tough ends, and chopping leaves into wide strips.

In a large pot saute and brown bacon over medium heat. When bacon is brown add chopped onion. Cook until onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic to the sauteed onion and cook for a minute.

Pour in beer, vinegar, and molasses. Add chopped greens. Salt and pepper to taste.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low then press down greens into pot and cover.

Cook for 15 minutes. Greens will wilt and shrink the way spinach does. Mix well so greens keep cooking down.

Once well mixed, Cover and cook for an hour.

Finally, add hot sauce a little at a time and taste to reach the desired spicy heat (optional, okay to just put a bottle of hot sauce on the dinner table and spice it up.)

Check greens and if needed add water, beer, or stock as liquid cooks out - a half cup at a time. I like to end up with about half of a cup of pot liquor or sauce -- it's so good.

Simplest to serve with red beans, rice, and a hot link, or Mom's Jambalaya!