Collard greens need to be cooked a long, long time. They can be delicious when cooked with a ham hock or even a smoked turkey leg or wings.

I like my collard greens mixed with turnip greens, mustard greens, and kale. Because I don't have a large space for a garden, I buy one bag of mixed greens and one bag of collard greens from the frozen food section. I mix these two bags and cook them per directions until very done. Then I drain them and season them with equal parts of olive oil, cider vinegar, and maple syrup. For two large bags of greens start with 1/4 cup of each oil, vinegar and syrup. Then add additional vinegar or syrup according to your taste. Toss the greens and oil/vinegar/syrup together very well, then toss and toss some more adding some salt and pepper to taste.

You will not miss the ham or butter in these greens!

Teresa

I grow the heirloom Blue Collards and they are very tender. I am in Zone 7 so July is the time to plant. They taste better after the first frost but you can eat them anytime. I boil them until tender with your choice of seasonings. My grandmother's was bacon grease with a little sugar.

Don't like collards, just too strong for me!

MIL used to mix them with turnip greens, and put ONE pod of okra, plus apple cider vinegar, and fat back in hers and a pinch of sugar.
Don't ask me why the one pod of okra!

Yummm, I'm with kathy813 all the way! Blue collards that have had a frost on them, bacon grease and a little sugar.

People here in Atlanta look at me like I'm crazy when I say they taste better after a frost, but it's true.

Be sure and wash your collard greens really well. We wash ours several times.

I like collard greens, but I think I like turnip greens better. I haven't tried growing any, and we never have a frost, so that would not help here. Since DB won't eat ham, I would have to cook them with a smoked turkey leg.

Lars

Here's what I do with all the leafy bitter greens, including collards, and I think they are wonderful this way. I never liked them before I started doing this, and now I eat them all the time.
Fill your big pasta pot 3/4 with water, and put it on to boil.
Cut out the tough stems, make a stack of the leaves, roll them up side to side, and slice the roll into ribbons about an inch or so wide. Then after that, swish them around in a big basin of cold water, lift them out into a colander, and let them drain a bit. (Much easier to wash them after you cut them than before.)
When the water is boiling, add a generous tablespoon of salt and one of sugar, stir it around, dump the greens in, sink them into the water, cover the pot and bring it back to the boil, reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for about 15 minutes. Cook them longer if the leaves are very big and tough, but no more than 25 minutes.
Drain the greens in the colander, and dump them back into the pot while there is still some water clinging to them. The juices will be the pot liquor, which is delicious and nutritious.
Add a generous knob of unsalted butter, squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, and add a generous grinding of black pepper.
Yum!
You can also cook some good lean bacon until it is well done but not powdery, drain it, and crumble it into the finished greens.
Another variation, which makes a wonderful lunch, is to cut up some potatoes into 2" chunks, cook them for five or ten minutes in the water before you add the greens, and then proceed in the same way, including the bacon at the end. Delicious, and very good for you (if you reason that a little butter and a little bacon, being natural foods, are good for you in reasonable amounts, and makes you so happy that they boost your good health..).

I'd eaten them at an Ethiopian restaurant years ago, and recreated a recipe we enjoy.

Wash a bunch or two of greens well. Rough chop and add to a large pot of salted boiling water. Cook 25-35 minutes or until tender. Drain.
While greens are cooking dice up a small yellow onion, saute in 2-3 tablespoons good olive oil. Add a healthy pinch of cayenne (we like it hot, so add more) and the cooked greens. Salt to taste, drizzle with olive oil.
Yum...I want some now! :)