{"id":1224,"date":"2025-10-06T10:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T01:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/?p=1224"},"modified":"2025-10-06T10:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T01:23:11","slug":"stuffed-collard-leaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/?p=1224","title":{"rendered":"STUFFED COLLARD LEAVES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"908\" src=\"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Collards-1024x908.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Collards-1024x908.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Collards-300x266.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Collards-768x681.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Collards-1536x1362.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Collards-2048x1816.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In the years I lived in California, I became enamoured of collard greens, those excellent large, very dark green fronds that are a staple of African American cooking in the south of the USA. In the spring, they were abundant at the Berkeley Bowl and at local farmers markets. When I returned to Australia, I found that they are difficult to source here, so I sought out seeds to grow my own. 19 years later, I am still growing collards many generations on from those original seeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My recipe for the spring season is to stuff these leaves with a mixture based on quinoa, but other grains can be used such as rice, bulghur (cracked wheat) or couscous. Unfortunately, this year my leaves are not large, having been planted in a shadier part of the garden over winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you cannot find collards at your local farmers market, you can use cabbage leaves instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many of the ingredients of this recipe utilise the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/?p=1218\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"1218\">foods discussed in the previous blog<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/wp-admin\/post.php?post=1218&amp;action=edit\">:<\/a> the dark green colour of the collards, the sour foods of vinegar, tomato, leek, mint and olive oil, and the liver cleansing properties of coriander. All in all, it\u2019s a perfect combination for supporting the liver in the springtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>INGREDIENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>6-8 collard leaves depending on size<br>1 \u00bd cups of cooked quinoa<br>100 g leek tops finely sliced<br>1 heaped tablespoon of chopped fresh coriander<br>1 heaped tablespoon of chopped fresh mint<br>50 g ground roasted almonds<br>1 tablespoon olive oil plus some for saut\u00e9ing<br>1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar<br>500 ml tomato puree\/passata<br>\u00bd cup water<br>Salt and pepper to taste<br>6-8 kalamata olives<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>METHOD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Filling:<br>Saut\u00e9 the leek tops in a little olive oil, stirring continually until crispy.<br>Combine in a bowl with the cooked quinoa, coriander and mint, ground almonds, olive oil, cider vinegar, salt and pepper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Collards:<br>Cut out the tough stems of the collards,<br>In a large pot, bring a couple of litres of water to the boil.<br>Place the leaves in the boiling water for 5 minutes to soften, then remove.<br>Place portions of the filling into the centre of each leaf and wrap into a parcel.<br>Place the parcels into a baking dish.<br>Cover with the tomato puree and water.<br>Top each parcel with an olive.<br>Cover the dish with a lid and bake at 190\u00b0C for 20 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Serve as a side dish or as a main with baked potatoes and honeyed carrots, as an example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Say thank you to your liver for all its hard work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"1228\" src=\"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Collard-parcels-1-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1228\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Collard-parcels-1-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Collard-parcels-1-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Collard-parcels-1-rotated.jpeg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-id=\"1227\" src=\"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parcels-in-sauce-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1227\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parcels-in-sauce-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parcels-in-sauce-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parcels-in-sauce-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parcels-in-sauce-rotated.jpeg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"www.acupressure.com.au\">www.acupressure.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the years I lived in California, I became enamoured of collard greens, those excellent large, very dark green fronds that are a staple of African American cooking in the south of the USA. In the spring, they were abundant at the Berkeley Bowl and at local farmers markets. When I returned to Australia, I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/?p=1224\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">STUFFED COLLARD LEAVES<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,411,423,420,313,172],"tags":[305,414,424,421,62],"class_list":["post-1224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-detoxification","category-food","category-liver","category-sour","category-spring","category-wood-element","tag-detoxification","tag-food","tag-liver","tag-sour-taste","tag-wood-element"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1224"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1231,"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224\/revisions\/1231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acupressure.com.au\/wprss\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}