tcmedara  burbled across the ether:

Heh.  Same place I went.  Collards is a "green" like kale, but tolerates
warm weather, hence it's popularity in the southern US.

I love greens, always have, and am always looking for ways
to enjoy them.
My wife made this over the Christmas holidays, and
repeatedly since then.

It is delicious and very gratifying, especially on the cold
wet days.

Collard Greens Soup

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes

1 14-oz package smoked sausage cut into 1/4" slices (we used
a low
filler/low carb turkey sausage-kielbasa type, use whatever
suits your fancy)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 green pepper, seeded and chopped
2-3 slices of bacon
2 32-oz containers light chicken broth (don't skimp on
quality here or make your own good and fresh)
1 bunch of fresh collard greens
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper (or to taste)
Dash of hot sauce

Clean the collard greens by removing the thick stems,
chopping into bite
sized pieces then rinsing several times.

Chop up bacon and render the bacon in a Dutch oven or
similar large pot.

Remove the bacon and all but 1tbsp of the bacon fat.

Saut? sausage, onions and green pepper in the Dutch oven
with the fat over
medium-high heat 5 minutes or so, or until lightly browned.

Return the bacon to the pot, add chicken broth, collard
greens, pepper and
hot sauce; bring to a boil.

Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes, stirring
occasionally.

As specified this recipe makes 6 servings.

Notes:

Collard greens tend to be very dirty/gritty.  I guess they
can now be
purchased pre-washed and pre-chopped in nice little 16-oz
bags but it is not
too difficult to clean them and they are generally very
inexpensive when you
do the work yourself.

Hot sauce may be omitted or amount increased depending upon
your taste.

Bacon can be omitted and the oil replaced with olive or
other vegetable oil
of your choice.  I like the extra flavor added by the bacon.

I haven't worked out the exact carbs, kind of hard to
because it depends on
sausage selection and actual amount of greens used, size of
onion, etc.

Collard greens, when boiled, without salt, are 9.3g carbs,
with 5.3g fiber
per 1 cup.  I've never measure but it looks to me like one
of those big
bunches of collards cooks down to about 4-5 cups at most.  I
generally serve
myself about 1/2 cup of greens.

The sausage we use says 0 g carb per 2-oz.  I tend to not
believe this (just
by looking at the actual ingredients) so I count it as 1g
per 2-oz, or 7
grams for the amount of sausage specified.

Enjoy.
--
JJ.
275/207/185
Atkins since 9/1/2003
http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jjsmythe/my_photos
Hey, I think this is working!

Supergoof  burbled across the ether:

Sounds yummy.  Can you tell I haven't had dinner yet?

<rotisserie chicken and spinach salad and tea, mmm--m!>

Sounds more like what we call Swiss chard here in the US.
Leslie in Atlanta

Collards are a type of cabbage.  They originated
from the Middle East Mediterranean area.  The
Romans brought them back to Italy.  The Romans
then took them to Britain.  The English then
brought them to the colonies.

They grow in winter gardens in the southeast US.
The previous poster is right.  They are similar to
kale which is also a type of cabbage.

Cookie

Sounds a bit like chard.  I do love leafy greens!  :-)

Priscilla

That sounds like what we call chard.  It's related to beets as far as
I know.

There's also varieties that have colored stalks too - I grow those
instead of the white-stalked ones.  I eat the leaves as greens and dry
the stalks as a celery-like addition to soups - much easier to grow
than celery is.

Chard grows nearly year-round, you can even dig it up from under snow.
It's good stuff.

LOL.  Took me a second, but I got there.  :)

--
revek
A program is a device used to convert data into error messages.

LOL

You're nicked, mate!

Rachel
(New Zealand)