The BEST Instant Pot Collard Greens
The BEST Instant Pot Collard Greens loaded with bacon, ham and perfectly tender! This will be your new favorite side dish recipe–It can even be low-carb!
After many trials and attempts, I finally have made the perfect collard greens in the Instant Pot! Pressure cooking can be so finicky… Do you have enough liquid? Is it going to burn? When do I release the pressure? You won’t have any questions at the end of this recipe because I’ve got the perfect ratio to prevent those burn warnings and give you the perfect tender, flavorful collard greens in no time!
For a delicious, impressive meal, serve these with Blackened Chicken and these tasty Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes.
Ingredients for Instant Pot Collard Greens
- Collard Greens: I remove the stems for the best taste and texture.
- Chopped Ham: Leftover dinner ham, thickly sliced deli ham, or Country ham.
- Bacon
- Garlic
- Onion
- Broth: Chicken, vegetable or beef broth.
- Rice Vinegar: You can use distilled vinegar or apple cider vinegar in a pinch, but the vinegar flavor will be stronger.
- Brown Sugar: Golden Monkfruit works if you are low carb or keto.
- Spices: Salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder
How do you make Instant Pot Collard Greens?
- Using the sauté function brown the bacon and ham until crisp. Add the garlic and onion, sauté until translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Turn the sauté function off.
- Add the broth, rice vinegar, sweetener, and spices, stir until the sugar is dissolved.
- Add in the chopped collard greens.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot, seal the valve and set the pressure cooker function to 6 minutes. If you are new to the Instant Pot it will take about 10-15 minutes for the machine to get up to pressure, when the cooking time actually starts the timer will start counting backwards. The machine will beep several times when it is done.
- When the cooking time is over place a dish towel over the valve and very carefully release the pressure. Remove the lid and stir well, serve immediately.
How do you make collard greens tender?
If you’ve ever had collard greens and have found the tough texture off-putting, you are not alone. Tough greens are a common problem, if you are cooking greens on the stove top it often takes about 90 minutes to achieve tender greens. You can easily achieve the same thing much faster in an Instant Pot. The high pressure environment will ensure perfectly tender greens every time!
Adding vinegar also helps to create a perfect, tender texture; the mixture of rice vinegar, sweetener, and meat creates an ultra savory sauce that makes these greens irresistible.
Can you use other greens in this recipe?
Mustard greens can easily be substituted for collard greens in this recipe; you do not need to alter the cooking time.
Another option is kale or chard, however these greens are not quite as tough and do not take as long to cook. An appropriate Instant Pot cooking time for kale and chard would be 4 minutes.
Other Instant Pot Recipes
Once you get the hang of your Instant Pot you will be ready for all sorts of new recipes! A family favorite are these Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes that require no draining and only a 7 minute cook time.
This is a great one to remember for holidays when your oven and stove are full, this can be a real life saver! Some other favorites include:
- Black Eyed Pea and Collard Green Soup
- Instant Pot Pizza Soup
- Cheesy Buffalo Chicken Soup
- Instant Pot Sausage and Cabbage Casserole
Instant Pot Collard Greens
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup chopped ham
- 4 slices bacon chopped
- 1/2 cup white onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic chopped
- 2/3 cup chicken broth
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup golden monkfruit sweetener or brown sugar if you're not low-carb
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 pounds collard greens tough stems removed, chopped into roughly 2 inch pieces
Instructions
- Using the sauté function brown the bacon and ham until crisp. Add the garlic and onion, sauté until translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Turn the sauté function off.
- Add the broth, rice vinegar, brown sugar and spices, stir until the sugar is dissolved.
- Add in the chopped collard greens.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot, seal the valve and set the pressure cooker function to 6 minutes. If you are new to the Instant Pot it will take about 10-15 minutes for the machine to get up to pressure, when the cooking time actually starts the timer will start counting backwards. The machine will beep several times when it is done.
- When the cooking time is over place a dish towel over the valve and very carefully release the pressure. Remove the lid and stir well, serve immediately.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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