Hoppin’ John and Collards

Tuesday, November 19

Hoppin’ John and Collards

Rating: 4.5

I hadn’t made Hoppin’ John for a little while and decided to give the recipe in Cookin’ Crunk a try. It’s a little different from the recipe I normally make, which is in The Vegan Table, in that this one uses cabbage. That was lucky since I had some cabbage in the fridge to polish off. This recipe has the rice and beans cooked separately and then you serve the beans over the rice. I like this method because I sometimes have issues with either the beans or the rice not cooking correctly whenever I do both in the same pot. We tend to like our beans very tender, so I soaked them all day and pre-cooked them for about 30 minutes before adding them to the pot with the rest of the ingredients. You’ll need about an hour to cook this since it’ll take a few minutes to prep the onion & cabbage, and then it needs 45 minutes to cook. We really liked how tender the cabbage gets and how all of the flavors just sort of melt together. You definitely want to top this with hot sauce for a spicy Southern dish. Also, this makes A LOT of food, so you’ll have plenty left for lunches or even dinner again later in the week. I decided that we needed and extra veggie with dinner, and I was going to just steam some broccoli, when I thought, “No. Hoppin’ John needs collards.” Now, I’m not a fan of collards, but Seth loves them. I’ve found that if I add enough balsamic vinegar to the bowl I can tolerate them, though. We don’t use a recipe, but just a basic method I learned from Seth’s mom. Basically, chop up the greens (you can add or use turnip, mustard or whatever, too), chop up an onion & some garlic. Cut a turnip or two or a potato or two or any combination, plus a couple of carrots into big chunks. Sauté the onion for a few minutes, then add the garlic & sauté for another minute or two. Add the collards and cook for a few minutes until they start to wilt, then add a bunch of broth to the pot (oh yeah, you need a really big pot for this), toss in the turnip, potato, and carrots (if you like parsnips those are good in here too). Add some salt, and bring it all to a boil. Let it boil for a few minutes, then turn down the heat to a simmer, and leave it alone for at least an hour. Yes. An hour. In the South, greens get cooked to death.