Food Friday: Collards, why you will want to put them in your cart.

My husband and I travel full time around the country and we're currently in Austin, Texas. It is by far one of my favorite cities. And we're fortunate to have a few great grocery stores that feature locally grown produce. If you can get locally grown produce, you are fortunate. Not only does it help the environment by not having to be shipped in huge trucks across the country, but it's also better for your health! When you buy local organic produce you will avoid a lot of the pesticides and GMO's that go into a lot of of the non-organic produce. Not to mention, that if you buy locally far less people handle your food, I don't know about you, but the thought of a few hundred people touching my leafy greens does not thrill me. 

This week I picked up some collard greens at the grocery store, one of my favorite leafy greens. Collard greens ranks up there with kale as one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet! It also ranks up there as one of the tastiest foods on the planet! Both great reasons to add it to your cart this weekend! 

First of all, have you ever seen collard greens? They are HUGE! You could probably fan yourself with one of the leaves while laying on a tropical beach somewhere, eating grapes, soaking in the sun. But, I'm guessing you won't be doing that anytime soon, so you'll probably want to eat them (of course if you'd like to fan yourself with them while sitting on a tropical beach, go right ahead). 

Collards, as I said before are packed full of nutrients. Like kale, a lot of people don't seem to know how wonderful collards are, and they often get ignored in the produce aisle. 

Collard greens have lots of vitamin C and recently, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have discovered that 3,3'-Diindolylmethane in brassica vegetables such as collard greens is a potent modulator of the innate immune response system with potent anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-cancer activity. 

So now that you know how awesome collar greens are, what can you do with them? 

A quick and easy way to use collard greens is to simply make the leaf a wrap for other delicious nutrient dense foods. Slice some mango, cucumber, dark lettuce, sprouts and a little lemon juice and throw it on a collard leaf and roll that baby up! First of all, it looks super fancy and will make all of your co-workers jealous, and secondly it tastes AWESOME. 

Here are some other collard green based recipes from around the web: 

Fat Free Vegan: Tropical black bean and collard soup

Fat Free Vegan Kitchen: Collards stuffed with red beans and rice 

Vegetarian Times: Collard Green Coleslaw salad 

Vegan Yum-Yum: Sweet Chili Lime Tofu with Wok steamed Collards and Quinoa

So there you have it, fan yourself on a tropical beach, but be sure to eat it afterwards! Enjoy your collard greens this week! 

Have you tried collards? Share a recipe! 

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Natala Constantine is certified in plant-based nutrition through Cornell University. She has a passion for helping people go vegan and getting healthy after she reversed diabetes and so far has lost over 150 pounds. She travels full time with her husband around the country speaking about plant-based nutrition and pursuing her passion for photography. You can check out her websites: veganhope and Constantine Arts  and you can find her on twitter @veganhope or here on facebook!