Collard Greens and Caramelized Onions, Organic Recipe Makeover

The third time is the charm!  I have tried two other times to cook collard greens and they were tough and gross.  This time I thought about the way my sweet papaw carefully prepped the collards before cooking and decided to cook them his way.  He would wash the heck out of the collards first.  Then he would sit at the table and carefully pull all the tough stems off and just use the tender green leaves tearing them up into pieces about one to two inches in diameter...no knives, just tearing.  You know how celery has strings in it, well some collards have strings in the veins and those need to be removed, so he would just tear them out. 

Next he would get a big pot of water boiling, add a ham hock, a stick of butter, sweet onions and hot sauce then cook for about an hour before adding the collards to that delicious, greasy, meaty broth and cook for another hour or so. Now here is where I have to change his recipe some...since I'm not eating meat and don't use a stick of butter in a month, I decided to use the next best thing for cooking the collards, my homemade organic vegetable broth with a little crushed red pepper, garlic and sweet onions.  Then I served the collards over sweet, caramelized onions.  It was a little bit spicy, a little bit sweet and incredibly tender.  I could eat these everyday.  So here is the recipe.  I also made two caramelized sweet onions in another pan to serve the collards over, recipe not included below.

UPDATED: FOR ANTI INFLAMMATORY DIET

Collard Greens with Caramelized Onions  3 large servings

1 pound organic Collard Greens, washed, stems removed and torn into 1-2 inch pieces.
1 organic sweet onion, sliced
1 TBSP organic olive oil
1 TBSP organic butter not AIP
1/2 TSP crushed red pepper not AIP
1 organic garlic clove, minced
3 cups organic vegetable or chicken broth

In a large pan, saute onion in the olive oil and butter for about 3-5 minutes, add minced garlic and cook another couple of minutes.  Add crushed red pepper and broth, stir well over medium low heat. Add broth and stir.  Add collards, cover and simmer for an hour.  Drain any remaining liquid and serve immediately with the caramelized onions over the collards.

While the collards are cooking, in another pan, caramelize two sweet onions to serve on collards.