Skip to content

Collard Greens substitute

Best substitute

Kale (Lacinato or Curly)

Use the same amount by weight, cooked 15-20 minutes instead of 30-45 as the collard greens you are replacing

Best for gomen (Ethiopian collards)

Close match

Kale is the best substitute for collard greens, swapped 1:1 by weight and cooked about ten minutes less - lacinato (dinosaur) kale is the closest match, especially for Ethiopian gomen. Green cabbage or British spring greens also work 1:1 and taste milder and sweeter. Mustard or turnip greens keep the southern character but are much peppery-sharper, and spinach should be a last resort because it collapses to almost nothing.

Other collard greens substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

Substitutes for Collard Greens with ratios

  1. 2Spring Greens or Green Cabbage

    Close match

    Use the same amount by weight, cooked 20-30 minutes

    Loose-leafed spring greens, or the outer leaves of an ordinary green cabbage, sliced into ribbons.

    What changes
    Best for
    gomen, braised greens with smoked meat, budget cooking

    British spring greens are effectively the same vegetable as collards, so that swap is nearly invisible. Plain green cabbage is a close cousin but sweeter and softer, with none of collards' faint bitterness, so a gomen made with it tastes noticeably milder - a squeeze of lemon and a bit more black pepper brings it back into line. It also cooks down more, so buy a slightly bigger head than you think you need.

  2. 3Mustard Greens or Turnip Greens

    Different taste

    Use the same amount by weight, cooked 20-30 minutes

    Thinner, peppery brassica leaves traditional in southern cooking.

    What changes
    Best for
    southern pot greens, mixed greens, greens with ham hock or smoked turkey

    Traditional partners for collards rather than imitations. Both are distinctly hot and sharp - mustard greens especially taste almost horseradish-like when cooked briefly - so a straight swap makes a spicier, more aggressive pot. Two easy fixes: mix them half and half with cabbage, or add a pinch of sugar and a longer simmer, which mellows them considerably.

  3. 4Swiss Chard

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount by weight, added for the last 5-10 minutes only

    Large tender leaves with thick edible stems, in the beet family rather than the cabbage family.

    What changes
    Best for
    quick sauteed greens, soups, when you are short on time

    Cooks in a fraction of the time and comes out silky rather than substantial, with an earthy, faintly beet-like flavour instead of a cabbagey one. Excellent as a quick green side, wrong for a 45-minute braise - it will disintegrate into the pot liquor. Slice the stems and start them a few minutes ahead of the leaves.

  4. 5Savoy Cabbage

    Close match

    Use the same amount by weight, cooked 20-25 minutes

    Crinkled dark-green cabbage with a loose, leafy structure.

    What changes
    Best for
    gomen, long-simmered greens, greens with plenty of fat

    Underrated here. The leaves are dark and sturdy enough to survive slow cooking and the crinkles hold sauce well. Flavour is sweeter and rounder than collards with no bitter edge at all, which makes for a gentler dish - useful if you are cooking for people who find greens too strong, less good if that bitterness was the point.

  5. 6Spinach (Last Resort)

    Taste and texture differ

    roughly 1 ½ times the weight, added in the final 2-3 minutes

    Tender fast-cooking leaves with no structural strength once heated.

    What changes
    Best for
    emergencies, quick greens where texture does not matter

    Be realistic about this one. Spinach collapses to about a fifth of its volume in two minutes, releases a lot of water into the pan, and tastes soft and faintly metallic-sweet rather than firm and mineral. It cannot do a braise or a pot of greens, and in gomen it turns to slush. Use it only when nothing else is available, buy extra, and add it at the very end.

What is Collard Greens?

Collard Greens is Collard greens are the broad, flat, tough dark-green leaves of a cabbage that never forms a head, sold as spring greens in Britain and used across the American South and in Ethiopian gomen.

Cooking tips

  • Collard greens are doing two things in a dish: providing sturdy bulk that survives long cooking, and adding a mild cabbagey bitterness with a mineral edge. If your substitute is more delicate than collards, cut the cooking time hard; if it is sweeter, add acid or pepper to make up the difference.
  • Strip the thick central rib out of every leaf before cooking - it stays woody long after the leaf is tender. Stack the trimmed leaves, roll them into a cigar and slice across into ribbons; about half-inch ribbons for gomen, wider for southern-style greens.
  • Fat and time are what make greens taste good, not high heat. A long, low simmer with niter kibbeh, olive oil, bacon fat or smoked turkey turns the bitterness sweet. Fast-fried greens over high heat stay tough and taste sharp.
  • Do not throw away the cooking liquid. In southern cooking that pot likker is a large part of the appeal and is served alongside; in gomen you cook the greens until the liquid has almost gone so the flavour stays in the leaves.
  • Salt early so the leaves collapse properly, and finish with a splash of vinegar or lemon. That final acid is what stops a pot of long-cooked greens tasting flat and heavy.
  • For Ethiopian gomen, the aromatics matter more than the exact leaf: onion cooked down slowly, garlic, ginger, a little green chilli and spiced butter. Any of the sturdy substitutes above will taste right in that context.

Frequently asked questions

Are collard greens and kale the same thing?

They are different cultivars of the same species, Brassica oleracea, which is why they substitute for each other so cleanly. Collard leaves are broader, flatter and thicker, and take longer to cook; kale is more mineral-tasting and softens faster. Lacinato kale is the variety closest to collards in both look and behaviour.

Is spring greens the same as collard greens?

Effectively yes. What British shops sell as spring greens is a loose-leafed, non-heading cabbage very close to American collards, and it is the standard substitution in either direction. Cooking times are near enough identical, though spring greens are usually picked younger and can be a little more tender.

What is gomen and can I make it without collards?

Gomen, or ye'abesha gomen, is the Ethiopian braised greens dish: greens cooked down slowly with onion, garlic, ginger, sometimes green chilli and often niter kibbeh. Collards are the usual leaf but kale, spring greens, savoy cabbage or plain green cabbage all make a very good gomen. Avoid spinach, which turns to slush.

Can I use frozen collard greens?

Yes, and for long-braised dishes they are genuinely fine - the freezing has already broken the leaves down, so they need much less cooking, often 15 to 20 minutes rather than 45. Do not thaw and squeeze them first for a braise; add them straight to the pot. They are less good for anything where you want distinct leaf texture.

Can I skip the greens altogether?

In a dish where greens are the main event - a pot of southern greens, gomen - no, you need some kind of leaf. In a soup or a stew where they are one component among many, you can leave them out or swap in cabbage, chard or even shredded Brussels sprouts without any harm to the recipe.

Related substitutes

More vegetables & aromatics substitutes

Need a different ingredient?

Browse the full index, or the rest of this category.

Browse all substitutesMore vegetables & aromatics