Instant Pot Collard Greens and Smoked Turkey Tails

The collard greens and smoked turkey tails cooked in the instant pot turned out great.  I was skeptical that the instant pot could get the collard greens that tender in that short amount of time.  Growing up, we cooked soul food-style collards, turnips, and mustard greens for at least a couple of hours.

We’d simmer them with smoked ham hocks, pork jowl, or salt pork for a long time.  Not only did they cook quickly, but the flavor was outstanding and maybe better than the traditional method.   The old-school way of cooking soul food collard greens is gone.

As long as there’s an instant pot around, that’s how I’ll be cooking them.  They actually taste fresher than the typical Southern way of cooking them.

How do you cook quick collard greens?

Get the Glory brand bag of collard greens so you don’t have to labor in the kitchen cutting and picking the greens.  The bagged collards you find in the store are ready to cook.

Put them in an instant pot with your seasoning meat and pressure cook until tender.  You’ll never find an easy collard greens recipe that tastes better than the instant pot method.  As I said, these greens tasted garden-fresh and old-fashioned like I often ate down South.

The best meat for collard greens?

Growing up, mom mostly used salt pork.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with salt pork, it’s salted pork belly.  Our second choice of meat was pork jowl, followed by smoked ham hocks.

It wasn’t until recent years that I started using smoked turkey.  The taste is very similar to the old-fashioned greens recipe but without the calories and fat.  Smoked turkey tails, wings, and necks are much healtier than pork.