“What! You didn’t use any meat in these greens? Yeah right!” is usually what I hear when I serve these vegetarian collard greens. They can stand right up to my soulful, southern style collard greens recipe with its head held high. They are bursting with flavor and yes, even the pot liquor is bangin! : )
Watch me make these vegetarian southern collard greens from start to finish!
This is my favorite family recipe for collard greens made WITHOUT chicken broth and smoked meat. It’s healthier but don’t expect to have to sacrifice taste! You won’t even miss the meat.
Pass the hot sauce! It’s on and poppin!!!
This vegetarian southern collard greens recipe is family approved which isn’t easy to do in my deep south, tell it like it is, family. Try bringing a pot of collard greens to dinner that doesn’t have a slab of smoked meat in the pot and there are bound to be some issues and major side eye. Not with this recipe though!
Smokey, slightly salty, slightly vinegary goodness!
These collard greens are full of southern flavor! The key to a pot of guuuud, yes guuuuud, vegetarian southern collard greens, or any kind of collard greens for that matter, is to create a savory broth to slowly simmer the collards in. This recipe starts with a broth made with rich vegetable broth for maximum flavor, fresh garlic and onions, smoked applewood salt for that smokey, bacon taste and red pepper flakes for a kick. The collard greens just soak up all that yumminess.
Yum!! Here is the flavorful, smokey broth we’ll be simmering our collard greens in!
I love this recipe because it’s so easy and sometimes I just want a meat-free version of soulful dishes like collard greens.
Vegan Southern Collard Greens
Ingredients
- 1/2 small yellow onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2-3 cups vegetable broth I only used 2 cups
- 1 teaspoon applewood smoked salt or any kind of smoked salt
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 lbs collard greens
- black pepper
- hot sauce
Instructions
- Coat a large deep skillet or pot with vegetable oil.
- Saute onions until almost tender over medium heat and then add in garlic.
- Cook until onion and garlic are fragrant, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add in vegetable broth.
- Season broth with smoked salt and red pepper flakes.
- Taste and adjust the seasonings if needed. Make sure it's to your liking because this is how your greens will taste.
- Bring to a simmer and reduce heat.
- Add in the greens. Green will wilt down as they cook.
- Simmer for 1 hr to 1 hr 30 mins. Do not boil. Add more vegetable broth if needed. May need more or less time so be sure to check them after 30-45 minutes. When done, greens will be dark green, tender and will not have a raw taste.
- Add in more smoked salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes and hot sauce, if desired. ( I always do!)
- Enjoy!
- Add hot sauce or vinegar if desired.
Video
Notes
Any type of smoked salt can be used.
Cooking time may vary.
Add fresh tomatoes and red peppers if desired.
So delicious ! I’ve been trying different vegan versions and this is it ! First try was with smoked paprika and it was good but the smoked salt made allllll the difference . I got a thumbs up from the hubby too. I’ll have to double it next time . Oh I threw in a whole jalapeño because we like a little spice .
So good! I really didn’t care that this recipie was vegan–I just wanted to make greens but didn’t want to pay the outragous price for bacon so I was looking for an alternative way to cook them.
Some modifications to make it meatless:
-Used better than bullion chicken base instead of veggie stock
-Added 1/2 stick of butter while it was steaming
-Finished with some seasoned salt & would def add a tbsp of apple cider vinegar and cajun seasoning if I had it on hand.
Wow! This is amazing! I made it for New Year’s Day with black-eyed peas, and I added some smoked pepper and regular salt, and it was the best greens I’ve ever had! Thank you so much for sharing your great recipe!
Do the greens need to be chopped beforehand or put in whole?
I didn’t have the salt but had Liquid Smoke. I used 1/8 of a teaspoon and they taste great. I’ll try it with TJ’s smoked salt next time but I can’t imagine they are going to be any better! Thanks.
Im my previous comment I mentioned greens were bitter and asked what I could use to resolve it. Now today, I ate some for lunch and what a difference. The greens are delicious even without any sweetener. OMG I can’t wait to have more fir my dinner. 5 stars????????????????????
Collard greens are bitter, what do you use besides sugar
Amazing!! I used the Better Than Bouillon veg base, about 2.5 cups total plus a dash of extra H2O towards the end. I also used McCormicks smoky Montreal seasoning which has smoky salt and pepper plus addtl spices. My meat eating BF was quite skeptical about a vegan version aling with the fact that I didn’t boil it for hours. When he reached the bottom of the bowl he turned to me and said “Those greens turned out DAMN GOOD!”
Thank you Diva!! This is my new go-to greens recipe.
Me again…making these tonight for the gazillionth time. I’ve made this same recipe with curly kale and it was ridiculously good- the BF actually ate the kale. AND LIKED IT!
Thanks again, Diva!