A great pot of collard greens comes down to two things: patience and a deeply seasoned, savory broth. These braised collard greens come out well seasoned and perfectly delicious.
You’ll find the full recipe with ingredient amounts and instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of this post. Be sure to check out the blog post itself for extra tips and tricks!
Collard Greens Without Meat at a Glance
- Total Time: about 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 side servings
- Best For: A holiday table with a vegetarian guest, anyone who does not eat pork, or a weeknight side
- Standout Note: Soy sauce, smoked paprika, and molasses build the savory-sweet depth that smoked meat usually provides
I've been tasked with making collard greens for our family get-togethers over the last few years, and I'm always finding ways to change up the traditional version. I learned how to make collards by adding smoked meats, like ham hocks, bacon, or smoked turkey.
This version is meatless and tastes just as savory and delicious as those with meat.
If you want my other versions, I have pressure cooker collard greens with smoked turkey and slow cooker collard greens as well. This one is for the times you need a pot of greens everybody at the table can eat.
Happy Cooking,
Tanya
A Quick Look at the Ingredients
Ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions are on the printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.
- Collard greens - I grab a big bunch, strip the leaves from the stems, rinse them a few times, then cut them into about 1-inch pieces. If you'd rather skip that step, you can always grab the pre-cut bags from the grocery store.
- Umami ingredients - Soy sauce and smoked paprika are what I lean on to get that savory, smoky depth without any meat in the pot.
- Molasses - Just a little rounds out the soy sauce and adds the touch of sweetness you'd get from cured meat. Brown sugar works if you don't have molasses.
- Vegetable broth - This becomes your pot likker, so keep extra on hand. The greens drink up more than you'd expect over a long simmer. Chicken broth works too, but then it's no longer meatless.
- Olive oil - This is what the onion and pepper soften in. Any neutral oil works here, and the fat helps tame the bitterness in the collards.
- Yellow onion, red bell pepper, and garlic - These cook down first and build the sweet base the greens simmer into.
- Seasoned salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes - Seasoning, with a little heat from the pepper flakes that builds as the greens cook.
- Apple cider vinegar - Stirred in at the end. I add some kind of acid, vinegar or hot sauce, to all my greens. It balances out the bitterness collards naturally have.
- Liquid smoke - Optional. Add it if you want these closer to the smoky, traditional version.
How to Make Collard Greens Without Meat
Please see the recipe card below for the full printable recipe, ingredients, and instructions. Here you will find step-by-step photos of how to make this recipe.
Step 1: Soften the onion and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and red bell pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 to 7 minutes.
Step 2: Bloom the spices. Add the garlic, smoked paprika, seasoned salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring, for about 30 seconds. Thirty seconds is enough to wake the spices up without scorching the garlic.
Step 3: Build the pot likker. Pour in the vegetable broth, soy sauce, and molasses, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
Step 4: Simmer low and slow. Add the collard greens to the pot and bring to a gentle simmer, reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the greens reach your preferred tenderness, about 45 to 90 minutes. Stir occasionally and check the liquid, adding more broth a half cup at a time so there is always enough for pot likker.
Step 5: Finish with vinegar. Stir in the apple cider vinegar and the liquid smoke, if using. Taste the greens and the broth separately, then adjust the seasoned salt, pepper, or vinegar.
Step 6: Serve. Spoon plenty of pot likker over each portion and serve warm.
What to Do With the Stems
You decide what to do with the stems you removed from the leaves, but here are some options:
- Leave them out. The thick lower ribs stay tough long after the leaves are tender, so most cooks strip and discard them.
- Cook them separately. Slice the stems thin and add them to the pot. I do this with a few of my stems.
- Save them for stock. Freeze the stems with other vegetable trimmings and use them the next time you make broth.
- Juice them! I run a few through my juicer, along with other veggies and fruit for a morning drink.
If you are not sure where the tough part ends, I walk through it in how to cut collard greens.
Tanya's Top Tips
- Don't skip the vinegar. I won't make a pot of greens without it. It matters even more because we're not using meat, so vinegar definitely helps carry some flavor.
- Taste before you salt. Soy sauce is salty already, and depending on the brand of broth you use, you don't want to add too much salt. If you find it a little bland, add a bit more salt at the end.
- Keep it on low. If the pot is bubbling hard, you will cook off all the liquid, aka the pot likker, before the greens are tender. Check it from time to time and give it a stir.
- Taste the pot likker by itself. That tells me what the greens will taste like in another 20 minutes, since they keep drinking it the whole time they cook.
Variations
- Smokier: Add the liquid smoke, or increase the smoked paprika.
- Spicier: Increase the red pepper flakes, or pass hot sauce or pepper vinegar at the table.
- Make it a meal: Serve the greens and pot likker over rice, or alongside cornbread for soaking.
- Other greens: Mustard or turnip greens work with the same method, though they cook faster than collards.
What to Serve With Them
A bowl of Southern style pinto beans and a pan of classic Southern cornbread make this a full plate, and the pot likker is why you want the cornbread there.
How to Store Collard Greens
- Refrigerator - Store the greens in their pot likker in an airtight container for 3 to 4 days. They're honestly better on day two, once the seasoning has settled into the greens.
- Freezer - Let the greens cool completely, then pack them with some of their pot likker into freezer-safe containers or heavy-duty freezer bags. Leave a little room at the top for expansion. They'll keep for about 3 months.
If you have a big pot to put away, split it into shallow containers first. It cools down a lot faster that way, and that's what keeps it safe.
How to Reheat Collard Greens
- Stovetop - This is how I do it. Add the greens and their pot likker to a pot over medium-low heat and warm them through, stirring now and then. If the liquid has cooked down, add a splash of broth.
- Microwave - Cover the bowl and heat in 1-minute bursts, stirring in between so they warm through evenly.
- From frozen - Thaw them overnight in the refrigerator, then reheat on the stovetop.
However you reheat them, get them all the way up to 165°F before serving.
Related Recipes
- Pressure Cooker Collard Greens - The traditional version with smoked turkey, done fast.
- Easy Slow Cooker Collard Greens - Hands off, for when the oven and stovetop are spoken for.
- Collard Green Soup - Same greens, turned into a main.
- Classic Southern Cornbread - For the pot likker.
- Blackeye Peas - these go so well with collards, and are usually a part of a good luck plate to bring in the New Year.
Collard Greens Recipe (Meatless)
Ingredients
Equipment
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and red bell pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5-7 minutes.
- Add the garlic, smoked paprika, seasoned salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring, for about 30 seconds.
- Pour in the vegetable broth, soy sauce, and molasses, scraping up any browned bits.
- Add the collard greens to the pot. Bring to a gentle simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the greens reach your preferred tenderness, about 45-90 minutes. Stir occasionally and check the liquid. Add more broth if desired, in ½ cup increments.
- Stir in the apple cider vinegar and the liquid smoke, if using. Taste the greens and broth, then adjust the seasoned salt, pepper, or vinegar as needed.
- Serve warm with plenty of pot likker spooned over each portion.
Nutrition
Notes
- On the collard greens. The 1 pound in this recipe is the trimmed weight, after the stems come off. That was about 1 large bunch for me. A bag of pre-cut collards works too if you'd rather skip the prep.
- Taste before you add more salt. The soy sauce is already salting the pot, so I adjust the seasoned salt at the end, not the beginning.
- If your collards taste bitter. Add a little more molasses, or a pinch of brown sugar. The apple cider vinegar at the end helps with this too.
- Substitutions. Brown sugar works in place of molasses. Chicken broth works in place of vegetable broth, but then the dish is no longer meatless.
- Liquid smoke is optional. Add it if you want these closer to the traditional smoked turkey version.
- Storage. Keep the greens in their pot likker in the fridge for 3 to 4 days, or freeze for about 3 months. Reheat until they reach 165°F.
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