Hoppin' John with Collards

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp Extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 Yellow onion, diced
• 3 stalks Celery, diced
• 1 Green bell pepper, diced
• 4 cloves Garlic, minced
• 2 tsp Smoked paprika
• 1 tsp Dried thyme
• 2 Bay leaves
• ¼ tsp Cayenne pepper
• 2 cans Black-eyed peas, canned no-salt-added, drained
• 1 ½ cups Brown rice (dry)
• 3 ½ cups Low-sodium vegetable broth
• 1 tsp Kosher salt
• 1 tbsp Apple cider vinegar
• 6 cups Collard greens, sliced into ribbons
• 4 Scallions (green onions), sliced
• 2 tsp Louisiana-style hot sauce

Method

1. Cook the onion, celery and bell pepper in the oil over medium for 8 minutes. That trio is the Southern trinity and it starts most of what follows in this file.
2. Add the garlic, paprika, thyme, bay and cayenne and cook 1 minute — the smoked paprika is standing in for the ham hock, and it does the job.
3. Add the rice, broth and salt. Bring to a boil, cover, and cook on the lowest heat 35 minutes for brown rice.
4. Stir in the black-eyed peas and the collard ribbons, cover, and leave off the heat 10 minutes. The greens wilt in the residual steam without going gray.
5. Fluff with a fork, add the vinegar, and taste for salt. Scallions and hot sauce at the table.

Notes

✨ The restaurant touch

The vinegar at the end. Southern bean cookery almost always finishes with acid, and it is the step that gets left out of written recipes.

🧒 For the kids

Rice with beans in it. Chop the collards fine so they read as flecks rather than as greens.

🥡 Leftovers

Keeps 5 days. Fry leftovers into a crisp cake in a hot skillet.

Per serving

Computed from USDA FoodData Central values. A planning tool, not medical advice.