Country Turnip Greens

MLK Day weekend at New Hope AME is one of the big Sundays — the service is longer, the choir does something special, and we always have a fellowship meal afterward that draws people who don't come on regular Sundays. This year I coordinated the food committee for the meal and we cooked for eighty people, which required the full church kitchen at capacity and four women starting at seven in the morning.

The menu: baked chicken, macaroni and cheese, lima beans, cornbread, and a peach cobbler that I made from jarred preserves since fresh peaches are months away. We cooked together the way women in a church kitchen cook — not talking constantly, but in a comfortable communication that happens through movement, the way you learn to read a kitchen when you have been in one with other people for years. Pass the ladle, watch the pan, step to the left, here comes the hot dish. A choreography without a choreographer.

Pastor Hendricks's sermon was about Dr. King's lesser-known speeches — the ones that came near the end of his life when he was exhausted and frightened and continuing anyway. There is a version of courage, Pastor said, that only looks like courage from the outside. From the inside it looks like just continuing because you cannot imagine stopping. I have thought about that all week. The casseroles I make every Tuesday at Bernice's Table are not courageous. They are just continuing. But maybe those things are the same thing sometimes.

Kezia was at the fellowship meal helping serve — I had asked her to come and she arrived in her good Sunday clothes with her notebook in her bag and she filled a tray and smiled at every person who came through the line. I watched an eighty-two-year-old man named Brother Clarence receive a plate from her hands and say thank you, young lady, and she said you're welcome like she meant it. That is not a small thing. That is actually everything.

When you cook for eighty people in a church kitchen starting at seven in the morning, the dishes that ground the table are the ones that have always been there — the ones that don’t need to announce themselves. Turnip greens are that dish for me. We didn’t make them that Sunday, but every time I stand over a pot of slow-cooked greens now, I feel that same quiet choreography Pastor Hendricks described — the continuing, the showing up, the doing the thing because you cannot imagine not doing it. This is the recipe I come back to when I want to feel that.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 1 hr 15 min | Total Time: 1 hr 35 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

3 lbs fresh turnip greens, stems trimmed, leaves roughly chopped
4 strips thick-cut bacon or 1 smoked ham hock
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (or to taste)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper
Salt to taste

Instructions

Render the fat. In a large heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook the bacon until crisp and the fat has rendered, about 6–8 minutes. Remove bacon, crumble, and set aside. If using a ham hock, add it to the pot with 1 tbsp of oil and brown lightly on all sides.
Soften the aromatics. Add the chopped onion to the drippings and cook over medium heat until softened and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute until fragrant.
Build the pot likker. Pour in the chicken broth and water. Add the vinegar, red pepper flakes, sugar, and black pepper. Stir to combine and bring to a low boil.
Add the greens. Working in batches if needed, add the turnip greens to the pot, pressing them down as they wilt. Stir to coat in the liquid. The pot will look very full — the greens will reduce significantly.
Slow cook. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until the greens are very tender and have soaked up the flavors of the pot. Taste and adjust salt as needed.
Finish and serve. Remove the ham hock if used, shred any meat from the bone, and return it to the pot. Top with the reserved crumbled bacon. Serve hot with a ladle of pot likker and cornbread alongside.

Nutrition (per serving)

Country Turnip Greens — The Dish That Belongs in Every Church Kitchen