Collard greens are a great alternative to salad in winter, and full of iron and other leafy-green vitamins.

This is a recipe I threw together back in my bachelorette days when I didn’t bother measuring anything. It’s sort of like a Chinese stir fry without the thickened sauce, so if you want to go more that route, you can try some of this stir-fry sauce as an alternative to the seasonings listed below.

As such, I can only say it’s “Asian-inspired” instead of anything truly authentic, but that gives you some leeway to play around with the ingredients. Feel free to experiment with this one! There is no one way to cook collard greens.

2-3 bunches collard greens
1 ½ – 2 c. chopped onion
Minced garlic to taste
1 tbsp. sesame oil
1 tbsp. Chinese cooking wine
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. rice wine vinegar

Remove the excess stalk from the collard greens and cut into one-inch strips, thereabouts. Set aside.

Heat a large wok or sauce pan and coat the bottom with sesame oil. Sautee the onions and garlic.

Add the collard greens; if there are more greens than fit in the pot, then add gradually. They will become more compact as they cook. Stir the greens constantly, mixing them in with the onions and garlic. The greens should turn a nice, healthy green color.

Pour in the cooking wine, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar, and stir to combine. Keep stirring and cooking until you feel assured that the greens are done — you want a bright green color with some crispness still to the leaves.

Strain off excess juice and serve warm. YUM!