Improve Your Health With Collard Greens

A traditional Southern embellishment to soups, stews, and entrées, collard greens provide an impressive array of key vitamins and minerals, including vitamins A, K, C, the B-vitamin folate, iron, calcium, and manganese.

These nutrients play an important role in protecting our cells from damage and supporting the body's natural processes for controlling inflammation. Collard greens tend to be less expensive than other cruciferous vegetables so you can really get a nutritious bang for your buck. It's best to buy organic greens to avoid contamination from insecticides, an issue with conventionally grown produce.

To receive the terrific benefits of this vegetable, include it in your diet several times a week-an optimal amount would be about 6-10 cups a week. Be careful not to overcook these greens or you'll wind-up with a rotten egg odor, not to mention pungent-tasting collard greens. For cooking, slice thin strips of the greens, rinse and drain; then proceed to steam or sauté. When adding chopped collard greens to a favorite vegetable or meat-based soup/stew, stir the steamed greens in during the final minutes of cooking. You can also add collard greens to spaghetti sauce or to a vegetable lasagna recipe, in place of spinach. For a flavorful side dish, sauté collard greens with yellow onions and fresh garlic (or shallots). For a zesty salsa, combine cooked collard greens with fresh tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and jalapenos.

Sources

• HealthyEating.SFGate.com "What are the health benefits of eating cooked collard greens?" Accessed 5 Feb 2017: http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/health-benefits-cooked-collard-greens-4026.html
• WorldsHealthiestFoods.com "Collard Greens" Accessed 5 Feb 2017: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=138
• Nutritionandyou.com "Collard Greens nutrition facts: Accessed 5 Feb 2017: http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/collard-greens.html