I have a real admiration for collards and other greens because they are survivors. Tomatoes, eggplants, and other warm-weather vegetables are delicious, of course, but they have it easy, basking in the sun all day and not being expected to withstand repeated freezes. And while Mississippi isn’t exactly known for its cold weather, this year, like much of the country, we experienced one of the harshest winters on record. At the coldest point, the temperature stayed below freezing for days on end, breaking waterlines in the city where I live, shutting down schools and leaving us without drinking water for about a week. Since December, it’s snowed more times that I can remember, which is amazing when you realize that we usually see snow maybe once every 5 years, so we remember even the faintest flurry by the year it happened, not the month.
So my collards made it through some real winter weather this year. At the height of the big freeze, I went outside to check on them and they were literally frozen solid. During the heaviest snow, they were buried in white for a couple of days, until I finally thought to go out there and dig them out so the leaves could get some light. But did the winter weather faze them? No, they shook it off and emerged just as vibrant as ever, perhaps even stronger for having endured:
That’s how they looked right after the coldest weather, before I started stealing some of their largest leaves to cook with. That’s another great thing about collards; unlike head lettuces or cabbages, you can cut off what you need, and the plant will keep growing.
When the weather really starts to get warm, the collard’s central stem shoots up and sprouts clusters of florets that look a little like broccoli. Eventually those florets bloom into little yellow flowers, which are pretty, yes, but signal the end of the growing season for the collards. The leaves become more bitter once the plant has flowered, so I try to harvest the leaves before that can happen. In this I almost never succeed. Currently my collards have stalks about 4 feet tall and more flowers than leaves.
I’ve been been racing against summer to use all the collards, adding them to as many meals as my family can tolerate. The simplest (and to my taste best) way to cook them is in the pressure cooker, as a side dish for beans and rice. But this time, I wanted to do something a little more ambitious, so I wrapped the beans and rice inside the collard leaves and baked them with a simple tomato sauce. In the words of my husband, “This one’s a keeper.”
Collards Stuffed with Red Beans and Rice
If collard greens aren’t available, you can use large cabbage leaves to make this recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked brown rice (I used brown jasmine)
- 1 1/2 cup small red beans, cooked
- 1 large onion, finely diced
- 1 green or yellow bell pepper, chopped
- 2 ribs celery, finely chopped
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 15-ounce can diced fire-roasted tomatoes
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
- 1/2 – 1 tablespoon Tabasco, or to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- salt to taste
- 12 leaves collard greens
Instructions
You will need cooked rice and red beans, so before you do anything else, make sure you have those prepared. I pressure-cooked 1 cup of small red beans for 25 minutes (natural pressure release) and had about 3/4 cup of beans leftover after making this recipe.
Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Spray or wipe it with olive oil, if you like. Add the onion and a pinch of salt, and cook, stirring regularly, until it begins to brown. Add the green pepper and celery and cook, adding a little water if it starts to dry out, until the vegetables are tender. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
Remove 3/4 of a cup of the vegetables from the skillet and mix them in a bowl with the fire-roasted tomatoes and a little salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
To the skillet, add the rice, red beans, the seasonings, and 1/4 cup of bean-cooking liquid or vegetable broth. Reduce heat to very low and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly and adding additional liquid if it starts to dry out. Remove from heat.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to boil. Wash the collard leaves and cut off the stems level with the bottom of the leaves. Turn them with the coarse stem-side of the leaf up, and holding a very sharp knife parallel to the leaf, trim off part of the thickened central rib. Be careful not to cut through the leaves. If leaves are very large, you can just cut out the thickest part of the central rib.
In two batches of 6, place the collard leaves into the boiling water, pressing them down gently to make sure all leaves are submerged. Boil for 3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and rinse in cool water. Repeat with remaining leaves.
Preheat oven to 350F.
To assemble, spoon half of the tomato mixture into the bottom of a long, oiled casserole dish. Place a collard leaf in front of you, trimmed side up and stem closest to you. Place about 2-3 tablespoons of the rice mixture (2 for small leaves, 3 for larger) about a quarter of the way from the bottom.
Fold the side edges over the middle. Fold the bottom (stem end) over the filling, tucking it in behind the filling. Roll up tightly, and place each roll into the casserole dish. Spoon the remaining tomato mixture over the rolls, and cover the baking dish tightly with aluminum foil. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Serve hot.
Cooking time (duration): 75 minutes
Number of servings (yield): 6
Yield: 2 rolls per serving
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per serving): 144 calories, 6 calories from fat, less than 1g total fat, 0mg cholesterol, 283.2mg sodium, 436.9mg potassium, 28.4g carbohydrates, 8.5g fiber, 4g sugar, 7.5g protein, 2.1 points.
Copyright © Susan Voisin 2011. All rights reserved. Please do not repost recipes or photos to other websites.
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{ 83 comments… read them below or add one }
This is fantastic! I love the technique of removing the thickest part of the stem, I never thought of that. Well done.
Susan … I loved learning about the growth cycles of collard … I had no idea about the little flowers, and the little broccoli-like clusters (fabulous picture of that, btw).
And, thanks for another great recipe!
I can't say that I've ever had collard before. Shameful, I know! But I'm intrigued…this recipe looks delicious
Susan -
That looks great! I have a question. I bought a pressure cooker and you mentioned you cooked the beans for 25min.
Do you find it necessary to soak the beans?
I'd like to avoid soaking if possible, because I never remember to do it!
Thank you!
I bet boiled briefly leaves of cabbage can be used if you don’t like collard greens.
Andria, I have the same problem. Often I do a quick-soak: bring the beans up to high pressure, remove from heat, and let the pressure come down naturally before draining and cooking them for the soaked amount of time.
This time, I used small red beans (larger than adzukis and smaller than kidneys) and did not soak at all. At 20 minutes, they were not quite done, so I put them back on for 5 more minutes at high pressure. I was really happy with them because they were tender but still intact.
I'm delighted by your description of how well the collards fared during the winter. I can't wait to try your recipe!
I never soak beans because I never think that far ahead. Have had no problems with gas or anything else. I have a great book, Cooking Under Pressure, that has a chart in the flyleaf for all beans and grains with the time needed for soaked or unsoaked, natural release or forced release (running the cooker under cold water to bring the pressure down faster).
…I JUST made a similar recipe from the McDougall cookbook! I REALLY wish I had seen your version, because yours seems like it would have had more flavor. Mine was good, but a bit on the bland side.
Also, I needed a tutorial on wrapping the collared greens, I royally botched that one up.
The McDougall recipe called for azuki beans, which through much searching, are also called 'adzuki' and 'aduki' beans (I found mine canned). I thought these particular beans lent a really great, almost sweet flavor, so I highly recommend them over say, kidney beans. I'm printing your recipe, and inserting it in the cookbook, so I can use your version instead. Thanks!
Although I live in the South, I do not eat collards very often (not sure why not). I am always willing to try new recipes and this one sounds great. I am sure I will love it because I love stuffed cabbage. Thanks!
~ Tracy
I love collards! I already bought some seeds and am going to try growing them for the first time.
Brilliant!!! Never thought of baking the boiled collards. Love the idea and mind expansion!!! Thanks Susan.
Wow, that looks amazing and so southern!! Can't wait to try it.
Looks great! Have you ever tried cutting off the flowering stems to lenghthen the growing season? The plants might keep growing longer if they can't flower…
Hi Colleen–cutting off the stem does work. I've heard that some people keep collards growing year-round, though they don't produce well until the cooler months. The trouble is, I have limited garden space (really just a few square feet) and need to get the collards out before I can plant my summer vegetables (which are supposed to go into the ground this weekend). If I had the space, I'd try to keep them as perennials.
Can you use another type of green for this. I like all kinds of greens EXCEPT collards. I unfortunately can't even be in the house when they are cooking. I wish I liked them but I don't. This sounds wonderful and I would like to try it if another green would work.
I bet boiled briefly leaves of cabbage can be used if you don’t like collard greens.
I have never tried collard greens. I think I need to try them now since this recipe sounds delicious.
Wow! This looks great! I think it will be part of my Easter dinner.
These look fantastic! And, BONUS, I just happen to have some collard greens in my fridge……
I can't tell you how much I appreciate your blog and posts. Your presentation and comments always inspire me. Thank you for just being you. MLMckelvy
So, kinda like vegetarian cabbage rolls where the "cabbage" is the collard greens? What are collards anyways, the flowers make it look like something in the mustard/rapeseed category ?
Perfect! I was just seeking collard recipes today as I got them in my CSA box recently. This sounds lovely!
And me with a whole row of collards in my garden just begging for a great recipe!
Wow the picture looks great. I love how you presented it wrapped in yummy green leaf. I love red beans..like mexican food. yum!
These look BEAUTIFUL. WOW.
And add me to the list of those who have never seen a collard flower before–amazing picture. Thanks!
What gorgeous photos, and the dish looks wonderful. The collard leaves are so fresh and green, it's worth the extra effort of serving them this way for cheer value alone.
Ashley, sorry I didn't notice your question until now. You can use cabbage or, I'll bet, any green that has big leaves (not spinach, in other words).
These look great. Can they be served at room temp? They look good for Easter but I don't want to have to reheat
Just what I was looking for!
Wow, I didn't know that collards were so tough! I love spinach, but I do believe that collard greens are my favorites! Mustard greens are too spicy for me by themselves, but added to turnip, collard or spinach they're good!
jessyburke88@gmail.com
I just made these and they were amazing! I've never made a stuffed anything, but they were much easier than I thought. I'd never had collard greens until I moved to Mississippi, but I grew to love them and other greens. I no longer live in MS, but when I found some collards at the local farmers market this morning, I knew what I was making tonight. SO good.
I love wraps made with greens. Can't wait to try this, looks great!
James Reno
Raw-Food-Repair.com
i want to eat that!
My wife is a vegan and will love your site. I'm a carnivore but I married a veggie! Ha!
I love your site. The recipes are great. Thanks.
Amazing. Even the color of this dish. I love it.
What a great recipe! I love it, definitely trying this one!
This sounds amazing, Susan…I love making stuffed collards…it's one of my favorite go-to lunches! Thanks for the fabulous idea to pair it with red beans and rice!
ashley c. said…
"Can you use another type of green for this. I like all kinds of greens EXCEPT collards. I unfortunately can't even be in the house when they are cooking. I wish I liked them but I don't. This sounds wonderful and I would like to try it if another green would work."
What about chard? Swiss chard, or red chard? Kale? Kale leaves are often curly or very textured, tho…but would be an interesting taste…
Thanks. I've never used chard before. I'll have to see if I can find some in my taste bud challenged town. I do have kale on hand though. (I think)
Love the pictorial of preparing the collards, including the stem thinning – this is the stuff most people don't get from the recipes! Loved the story of their growth, and this recipe looks fantastic!
I made this tonight with just a few small changes: added a blended up chipotle and a tsp. of cumin to the sauce and crumbled up seitan sausage and diced zuchinni to the filling. It was delicious. Thanks so much for the recipe, Susan!
Had this tonight and used corn and spinach for the veggies. I was able to make enough to prep a casserole for the freezer, I can report back in about a month if it works if anyone is interested. We thought this was great and would definitely make it again.
Thank you for this delicious recipe. I love collard greens and this was a new way to enjoy them. I used small red adzuki beans and added cumin to the rice. I will definitly make it again.
Oooh! My omni husband loves everything I make from your blog recipes. This one he will absolutely love. He can’t get enough collards. Thank you Susan!
Love Collards. One of our favorite ways to cook them is to first roast some sesame seeds in a little cast iron pan. Like cast iron. set aside. Wash the collards, cut out the stem, fold and cut strips. Put just a splash of water in a skillet with garlic, heat and once the garlic starts browning throw in your collard strips, saute up, add some soy sauce and then the sasame seeds and your done. Yummo!
This turned out fantastic! I usually have collards on hand, and am looking for something new to do with them, but when I made the dish all I had was Swiss Chard. It worked beautifully as well. Great recipe.
Made these the other night. They were great. Very flavorful. I used canned red beans. It simplified things a bit.
This recipe rocks! I used cabbage as the store was out of collards. It turned out as good as it looked. I don’t usually have much luck when it comes to my dishes matching pictures but his was an exception. Thanks for the great recipe.
i just tried this one out last night, and my family LOVED it. This is really a fantastic recipe! yum yum!!
Just made similar wraps, but with millet, sweet veggies (kabocha pumpkin, parsnips, corn, peas). yum! I use a vegetable peeler to make the center stem thinner stem the bottom. You can do a couple of passes that way, less chance of cutting thru.
I made this last night and it turned out wonderful!! My boyfriend has agreed to start eating 100% vegan in our house so I’ve been trying to find new and exciting recipes to keep him interested. I had never eaten collards before and was a little scared I wouldn’t like them but I loved the flavor of this dish. My boyfriend ate two servings and requested that I make this again sometime soon. Thanks for such a healthy and satisfying meal!!
YUM! This was delicious! One of the best fat free vegan recipes I’ve ever tried. I used sweet cabbage leaves from our farmer’s market, as I’m not a big collard fan. Also used less ‘hot stuff’ and let those who like it hotter add their own. This weekend we’re fixing it for guests with beet greens. This goes in the favorites file for sure!
I made these tonight and they were delicious! I substituted quinoa for the brown rice – yummy!
These were good, although I wish I had used chard or something else besides collards. The collards were too bitter and they held up so well that they were actually quite difficult to cut through when we packed them for lunch the next day, so everything kind of became a free for all hot salad in the tupperware. Nevertheless, I liked them a lot. (I added some extra Italian style tomatoes to the sauce.)
Definitely loved this dish. Used Turnip Greens instead (it’s what we had on hand) and it turned out well. It wasn’t difficult to make and I had fun wrapping while my boyfriend spooned.
Big win.
Love love love this blog and especially this recipe. You’re an artist! Thanks for all your work.
Hi Susan,
I left a comment on this rccipe before the change over, but I guess it didn’t make it. . I’ve been revisitng it because I am thinking about making it, or making some version of it, and also because your collards are just SO beautiful. They must be delicious. Your photos of them are scrumptious, too. It is not common to find collards like that up in Idaho, so I may have to use cabbage when I get to this recipe. But the even the sight of them in your pictures cheers me up.
xo
moonwatcher
Would it be ok to substitute a red bell pepper for the green?
It’ll be a little milder but still delicious. Enjoy!
wow, look at that, I’m already drooling, great color, looks delicious
This looks great! Can’t wait to try it for dinner!
Question….do you use 1 cup of rice already cooked or 1 cup of rice that you then cook?
It’s a cup of cooked rice. The easiest way to do it is to make a pot of rice and then just measure out 1 cup for this dish.
Thanks! I’m in the middle of cooking it, almost at the point to add the rice…very happy to see the reply
I filed this recipe away awhile ago and am just now getting around to trying it. Delicious! Great recipe!
Thank you!
This looks like a nice vegan recipe – love beans, rice, greens, tomato, so I’ll give it a try. Regarding cooking beans – you do not need to presoak any dried bean if you use a pressure cooker. I’m not sure why, but they all turn out great. Maybe the pressure is so intense it breaks down the chemicals that upset your gut.
I have a great recipe book called “Pressure Perfect” by Lorna Sass that has charts showing cooking times for beans, vegies, grains & meat. Although it includes recipes with meat I read that Lorna is actually vegetarian, so there are vegetarian versions of most recipes in the book.
I made this the other night and it was fantastic! used up a lot less dishes than I usually use on cajun style beans, rice and collards. Even my picky fiancee liked it. They were better the next day too.
Have you had any luck freezing these and using them later? It would be great if I could freeze some and pop them in the oven for a quick dinner.
Love this site by the way…good stuff. I have used a lot of your recipes. You should think about doing a cookbook
These were wonderful! Just finished eating them for dinner. The colors of this dish are great, I added some slices of patty pan squash for white down the middle of the pan and it was beautiful. Almost too beautiful to eat.
The collards were easy to stuff and the rolling went fast. I only steamed those leaves for 1 minute and they were perfect for working with.
Thanks for a great dinner recipe.
Oops, I forgot to add that I am interested in hearing if these yummy babies freeze well, too. Would be nice to have them as a quick meal, just heating them from the freezer.
I can’t see any reason why they wouldn’t freeze well, except the collards may get softer. I’m glad to hear you liked them, and the patty pan slices sound like a great idea.
I made this tonight and used quinoa instead of the rice and cabbage instead of collards. The rest of the recipe I followed as per the instructions. This was a great meal for a cold night. Even my picky Mr. Wonderful loved it, which is a feat!
Thanks!
Hi Susan,
Finally, at our food co-op up here in Idaho, there were collards that were worthy of this kind of tratment. I have not been able to get these beautiful photos out of my head since I first saw them. so I bought the collards, intending to try this recipe. But then I had cooked some dried fava beans grown by my neighbor (an adventure), peeled all the skins off, and made a thick baked artichoke type dip with them, inspired by Karina’s artichoke dip, but using the beans instead of mayo. Well, it’s really a whole different recipe in its own right, but that’s where I got the idea. So, I started wondering if I could stuff the collards with that and some veggies for lunch. I tried it too ways, and like both. One was more raw, just soaking the collards in warm water and vinegar. And the other was to blanch them as you did, and then put the filling in, but in the end I decided not to bake them, just eat them like that. I loved them. I’ve also been doing an Asian inspired wrap stuffed with mashed millet and cauliflower and then dipped in a version of your miso sauce that has curry paste and a little peanut butter in it. Heaven! I just loved the bright green color of the just blanched collards so much that I couldn’t bring myself to bake them in a sauce. Maybe some day I’ll go all the way with the original recipe. At any rate, thanks for inspiring me with these beautiful photos of your collards and this wonderful recipe.
xo
moonwatcher
We had this tonight and it was excellent. My husband didn’t even mind all the preperation, he said after he makes it a few more times it will go alot quicker. We ran out of cayenne pepper so he used Chipotle Chili powder which gave it a little bit of a smokey taste. What a great way to eat collard greens. We never had them any other way than steamed and we didn’t like them. No bitter taste. My husband loved your pictures and blog as well.
Love this idea, i am going to the store to see if i can find collard as i am not sure it is sold in Moscow. I actualy bloged about a similar technique last year on my blog but it was a vegetarian stuffed cabbage. Check it out if you get sometime http://www.gusichka.com/2010/10/stuffed-cabbage.html
These are excellent!! I had 2 bunches of collards from my Co-op box so I decided to try this recipe. But what made it even better.. my kids AND husband loved it! My 6 yr old ate 7 rolls. Next time I will have to make 2 pans.
These look lovely, but the calories seem to be missing from the nutritional information. Any ideas as to how many calories per serving? I’d love to incorporate this dish into my diet plan, but cannot without that information. Thanks.
Thanks for pointing that out. They contain 144 calories peer serving.
I am re-creating this dish, in an effort to go more meat free – may I repost (with a link to your recipe) on my blog? Thank you.
Thank you so much for this post! I have been trying to come up with creative ways to use up our collards before they flowered, and happened upon your blog. I followed the recipe fairly closely, just made a few changes based on what I had on hand in our pantry. My Georgia born husband proclaimed the result “fit for a family dinner with my mother”. That is quite a compliment!
Thanks again, and keep on with the great recipes!
I made this today for lunch as I had some collards in my fridge to use up before our next CSA box arrived. I accidentally added more cayenne than I was supposed to (confused it with the paprika jar) but it still came out amazing. My husband (the skoville fan in the house) ate most of it and wants me to make that mistake each time. Great recipe!
I also used aduki beans as my store was out of small red kidneys. Totally delicious!
I love these vegetable burritos!
Oh my! These are so very good.
I made them for a dinner with an old friend who loves collards. They were good the night I made them, but after three days (the time they stayed in the fridge before I ate one again), they were amazing. The flavor had really set in and developed. So tasty.
I will definitely be making these again.
Delicious!
Thank you
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