This warm and hearty meal of southern greens is made fresh from healthy ingredients. It is easy to cook for all culinary skill levels and can be made using common household and dorm utilities. Freshman Travis Holloway cooked up the dish in the Warren kitchen for his friends while students drifted in and out as the tantalizing aroma of fresh garlic and pepper filled the room.

Freshman Travis Holloway made this dish of southern greens in Warren.

What you’ll need:

• Cutting knife
• Cutting board
• Stirring spoon
• Large deep boiling pot
• Stove
• 1 shallot
• 1 onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1.5 lbs of collard greens
• 1.5 lbs of mustard greens
• 4 pinches of salt
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper
• pinches of cayenne pepper
• ¼ cup of brown sugar
• 4 cups of water
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• Optional:  ¼ lb of bacon bits

Approximate cost:

$17 for 8 servings.

Recipe based on Emeril Lagasse’s recipe for southern braised greens with bacon on “Emeril Live: Emeril’s Blue Plate Special” aired in 2005 on Food Network.

Preparation

Remove the root of the shallots on top and bottom. Then, remove the outer layer from the shallot, and mince about a tablespoon and set aside.

Remove the root of the onion from the top and the bottom and mince as well.

Crack apart the garlic cloves by crushing it with the side of the blade, and then peel off the outer skin of the garlic. Get down to the cloves until you reach the glossy white skin and make sure to remove the clear skin that will be found. Mince the remaining buds of garlic.

Rinse and chop the collard greens and mustard greens into small bite-size pieces.

Cooking

Set the stove at a medium heat. Once the pot is hot, add the onions, shallot pieces, and a teaspoon of salt to the pot. Stir it up and proceed to add a teaspoon of black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Stir until mixed well. After allowing it to simmer for about eight minutes, or until there is a dense and heavy smell, add a ¼ cup of brown sugar and mix until all of the ingredients are assimilated together evenly.

The minced garlic should be added and stirred until an aroma of light spice drifts out. Add four cups of water and two tablespoons of rice vinegar and stir. Take the collard greens and add handfuls of the collard greens and allow them to soak in the mix by pressing them down into the fluid. As they begin to wilt, you can add more and more at a time. Once all of the collard greens are in the pot, pour the ¼ lb. of bacon bits into it and add mustard greens. Add salt to your liking.

Allow to sit for one hour and 15 minutes without a lid. When the time is up, serve.

Each serving of the dish has 26 grams of protein and 574 percent vitamin C, 874 percent vitamin A and 33 percent iron, based on a 2,000 calorie diet. (Nutrition facts based on original recipe.)

Freshman Travis Holloway, a chemical engineering major who whipped up this southern greens dish, talks about his cooking endeavors.

Q: How often do you like to cook or bake?
A: If I can, everyday. It’s a release from everyday activity.

Q: What’s your food budget as a working college student?
A: Per week, about $40 if I can, and if it’s only a few things, maybe about $20.

Q: What type of foods do you love to cook and/or eat?
A: I love Italian and soul food, both for cooking and eating, because everything that is developed is just to taste.

Q: Do you follow the recipes exactly?
A: I like going by what the maker of the recipe does, but in the same sense, I like adding what I think tastes best with the recipe.

Q: How long have you been cooking?
A: I’ve been cooking since I was about ten. It was more of something that I had freedom doing.

Q: What was your first cooking experience?
A: I made french toast and I burnt it horribly. I poured the mix out and I left it in the oven longer than what I was supposed to. I ended up just throwing it away and doing it again.

Q: Do you prefer cooking or baking?
A: Cooking more, because I feel there’s more room for creativity.