RECIPE | Pork Stuffed Collard Green “Enchiladas”

As y’all know, I’ve been working with an AWESOME trainer, and in addition to my workouts, she’s also been working with me on my diet. Now, I have been eating pretty clean MOST of the time for the last eight months or so, but I knew that I probably needed to change a few more things before I really started to see a drastic difference in my weight loss.

The first thing was introducing at least 30 grams of protein for breakfast (and NO or low carbs) in lieu of cereal, oatmeal, or even fruit. The second thing we did was eliminate carbs from at least one of my other meals a day… so either no carbs for lunch and then I can have them for dinner OR no carbs for dinner and I can have them for lunch.

Once I really started paying attention to my carb intake, I realized HOW many carbs I was taking in. Even if what I was eating was healthy, it was packed with carbs. Not that carbs are the enemy, but too much can really slow your metabolism and pack on the pounds.

Anyway, so I’ve been getting creative with my meals and incorporating different ingredients into them. In addition, we started getting our weekly CSA (community supported agriculture) box and I’ve been getting lots of ingredients I’ve never really cooked with before (like rutabagas!).

We’ve been getting collard greens almost every week and I wanted to try something different with them this week instead of just chopping and sauteeing them. I also had some ground pork from the farm this week so I decided to give stuffed collard enchiladas a try. I saw some other recipes out there that were similar, but nothing I liked in whole… so, this recipe became my interpretation and it turned out GREAT!

It was a hit with the whole family, including Lilly!

While black beans are a carb, they are lower carb than rice and other options and I wanted SOME substance to the meal. You could easily eliminate them and switch ingredients in and out.

RECIPE | Pork Stuffed Collard Green “Enchiladas”

RECIPE | Pork Stuffed Collard Green "Enchiladas"

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Prep time 20 mins
Cook time 25 mins
Total time 45 mins
A delicious, low-carb, healthy recipe for stuffed collard greens!
Author: Molly Stillman Recipe type: Main Dish Cuisine: Southern / Mexican-Inspired Serves: 5-6 servings
Ingredients

• 1 bunch of collard greens
• 1 pound of ground pork (you could easily substitute ground chicken, turkey, or beef in place of the ground pork)
• 1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained (feel free to omit this if you want to make it basically zero carb)
• 1 cup of corn (I used frozen corn)
• 1 can of petite diced tomatoes, drained
• ¼ cup of fresh cilantro, chopped
• ¼ cup of salsa of your choice
• 1 cup of shredded cheese, divided (I used white cheddar)
• Cumin (to taste)
• Cayenne pepper (to taste)
• Chili powder (to taste)
• Salt (to taste)
• Pepper (to taste)
• Garlic powder (to taste)

Instructions

1. Depending on the size of your collard leaves, you can either tear the leaves off the stem to make two "collard tortillas," or you can just use the whole leaf. I used the whole leaf and it worked fine for me...
2. Tear the bottom of the stem off the leaves and place the leaves in a pot of boiling water and let them boil for 3-4 minutes, or until the leaves are a bright green color. Then remove the leaves, strain, and let them cool.
3. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
4. In a large saute pan, add the ground pork (or whatever ground meat you're using) to some olive oil and brown the meat. I also add the salsa in at this time because I like to cook the meat in the salsa for flavoring.
5. Once the meat is 90% of the way done, add in your tomatoes, beans, corn and all your spices. Then cook until it's all mixed and well seasoned. I add the cilantro and half the cheese in towards the end.
6. Then, on a cutting board or other flat surface, lay out your collard leaves and start filling them and rolling them. There's no real rhyme or reason to this process, just take a leaf, lay it out flat, add a little bit of the pork / meat mixture and then roll the collard green just like you would a tortilla.
7. Then start placing your collard "enchiladas" in a 9x13 baking dish until you've filled them all. If you have extra "filling," (which you likely will) I added that to the top and then spread the rest of the cheese overtop of the collard enchiladas.
8. Bake in the oven at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until the cheese is brown.
9. Serve and enjoy!

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So what do you think? Will you give this a try? Have you tried any other healthy, low carb meals lately that I should check out?