Southern Mustard Greens and Sausage

Mustard Greens and Sausage

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

A southern classic, fresh mustard greens, onions and sausage, cooked in a touch of heaven - aka, bacon grease.

My husband was raised by his grandparents and grew up on a farm, a real farm, where produce of all kinds was grown and sold at little farmer’s markets all over Texas. His grandpa, “Cotton” is in his late 80s and still works in the garden daily and can be found at the local farmer’s market up on the square, every Saturday morning, rain or shine. My family never wants for fresh veggies, pickled okra or jelly, because grandpa keeps us stocked up. This weekend, as we were walking through his garden, he pulled out his pocket knife and cut us “a mess” of mustards – now my version of “a mess” and his version are a little different. This is what he sent home, the part floating in the water, was enough for our dinner. But, oh how we love that man. This recipe is typically how we cook our greens – although we usually use bacon instead of sausage, I was feeling extra special when I got ready to cook and used smoked sausage.

Ingredients

  • 2 Tbsp bacon grease
  • 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1-2 Tbsp minced garlic
  • 1-2 lbs of mustard greens, stems removed, torn into 3-4″ pieces and washed and rinsed numerous times
  • 12-16 oz smoked sausage, cut into 1/2 moon bite size pieces
  • 2-3 cups of chicken broth
  • 1 Tsp Cajun Seasoning
  • Cracked black pepper, to taste

Directions

  1. Sauté onion in vegetable oil and bacon grease until soft and starting to brown.
  2. add sausage and garlic, cook a few minutes longer.
  3. Add the greens and toss until it starts to wilt.
  4. Add chicken broth and Cajun seasoning and bring to a boil, lower heat, but keep it cooking – if you drop to a simmer, it will take forever. Stir often. It takes a while for it to cook down – 45 min – an hour for us. You want almost all of the liquid cooked out.
  5. Serve with cornbread and fresh tomatoes.