Eureka!!! Jess here.
Ok, so out of all the fruits and veggies I have trouble using, collard greens are one of my toughest. My family doesn’t like them, and unless they are cooked in a lengthy process next to a ham hock or bacon or other type of meat, I have trouble making them work for my family. The slow cooker stuffed collard greens are great, but my family at large prefers cabbage as their vessel for meat. My good friend Larry loves to steam them as-is, however that was not flying in our household. A while back, Garlicky Collard Greens worked for a while, but it was still not the “A-ha” recipe I was looking for. I wanted something that was flavor-packed, preferably a vegetarian/side dish option, that didn’t require me to cook the greens into oblivion to eat them.
I messed with the idea for Collard Green Noodles for quite some time. I’ve been promising y’all a great recipe, and hopefully this is it! By running the raw leaves through my pasta maker (the angel hair attachment) I was able to create these “noodles” that didn’t need to be cooked for more than a few minutes, either boiled or sautéed, before reaching a pleasant tender consistency. (If you don’t have an angel hair maker, you can try, with patience and/or great knife skills, to slice the greens very thinly by hand.)
From here you can boil or sauté them as desired. To make this recipe (which had me standing at my counter gobbling the bowl)I boiled them for a few minutes to create an al dente noodle. Sautéing them creates more of a crispy crunchy noodle, still quite pleasant, depending on your use.
The key for me for this dish was finding the right sauce. As many of you know, I love Thai food. LOVE it! If I was stuck on a deserted island with only one meal, it would totally be a veggie-packed Tofu Pad Thai. With a side of peanut sauce. GOOD peanut sauce.
I love this recipe by Leela P. over at She Simmers. It calls for full-fat coconut milk, which I think is what works to get a flavor that really holds up to these greens (in lieu of bacon or a ham hock). The one ingredient you may not have readily on your shelf if you don’t do a lot of Eastern cooking is the curry paste.
The curry paste amount is totally negotiable and to taste, depending on how you like it, but it really makes the sauce. It’s available in small cans at the Asian market, small enough where two batches of this sauce goes through the whole can.
After mixing all of the ingredients into the saucepan, (also including sugar, vinegar, peanut butter and a bit of salt) it’s just a matter of a constant whisk and stir.
After combining things and bringing it to a gentle boil, lower the heat and simmer for 3-5 minutes until thickened.
It should look something like this:
Toss a bit of it with your green noodles and enjoy!
I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did. I literally stood at the counter wolfing this down after snapping the photo.