In the South, collards are a must. Nina Compton created this side dish for an event at Dooky Chase’s, the iconic Creole restaurant shaped by chef Leah Chase, the true queen of twentieth-century Creole cooking. She transformed the 1940s autonomous sandwich shop owned by her husband’s family into a fine dining restaurant that celebrated elegance in Black Southern cooking, and she did it from the height of Jim Crow until she passed at the age of ninety-six in 2019.
recipe 
yields
Makes 3 cups
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 large Spanish onion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
3 bunches of collard greens, tough stem ends trimmed, stems and leaves sliced ½ inch wide
2 tablespoons salt
2 (14-ounce) cans coconut milk
Ingredients
steps
- In a large saucepan on medium heat, add the coconut oil and sweat the onions, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 3 minutes.
- Add the cayenne pepper and paprika. Stir to evenly distribute, and cook until the spices are well incorporated, about 3 more minutes.
- Add the collard greens and salt, then cook and stir occasionally until the greens soften, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the coconut milk, cover, and reduce the heat to low. Simmer until the greens are tender and the sauce is creamy, about 45 minutes. Serve immediately.
Date Published: 05.12.25
share
-
Reprinted with permission from
Kwéyòl / Creole: Recipes, Stories, and Tings from a St. Lucian Chef's Journey by Nina Compton with Osayi Endolyn copyright © 2025. Photographs by Brittany Conerly and L. Kasimu Harris. Illustrations by Fiona Compton. Published by Clarkson Potter, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.
