Collard Greens soup with cornmeal dumplings

Toni Tipton-Martin included a recipe for collard greens with cornmeal dumplings in her award-winning book “Jubilee,” of which she writes, “This is a totemic soul food dish,” as it evokes the classic soul food pairing of cornbread and collard greens. I used her recipe as a starting point for my dumplings, tweaking it slightly to streamline the steps and overall number of ingredients, among other things. Any coarseness of cornmeal will do, but I enjoy the balance of tenderness and texture a medium grind provides. I use olive oil instead of butter since the former is already called for in the soup recipe.

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% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

Make the soup: In a Dutch oven or other large pot over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil until shimmering. Add the sausage and cook, stirring occasionally, until it starts to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the collard greens, onion, paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, salt and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring regularly, until the vegetables soften and the onion starts to turn translucent, about 5 minutes.

Step 2

Add the chicken stock, tomatoes and water to the pot, bring to a simmer, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally and adjusting the heat as needed to keep it at a simmer, until the collard greens are tender, anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes or more depending on the age of the greens and how much chew you want them to have. Scoop out 1/2 cup of the potlikker and set aside.

Step 3

Make the dumplings: In a small bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and give it a stir. Whisk the olive oil and reserved potlikker into the dry ingredients until evenly combined.

Step 4

Carefully spoon 1 heaping tablespoon of the dumpling batter at a time into the simmering soup at least 1 inch apart to get 12 dumplings, cover and simmer until the dumplings are cooked through, about 10 minutes. Ladle the soup into bowls, dividing the dumplings evenly among them and serve.

Step 5

Nutrition (Based on 6 servings) | Calories: 299; Total Fat: 16 g; Saturated Fat: 4 g; Cholesterol: 35 mg; Sodium: 895 mg; Carbohydrates: 28 g; Dietary Fiber: 5 g; Sugar: 5 g; Protein: 14 g. Recipe from Washington Post staff writer Aaron Hutcherson.This story was originally published at washingtonpost.com. Read it here.

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