This gratin almost reminds me of my favorite childhood vegetable – creamed spinach. I know, how weird is it that a kid loved creamed spinach? So really this Creamy Collard Green Gratin dish is a combination of all my favorite flavors. To make this super creamy I opted to use cream cheese instead of a typical béchamel sauce. And I pretty much love anything that is made in a cream cheese sauce. Top with a slightly crispy panko crust, and you have the perfect green vegetable Thanksgiving side dish that is also creamy and rich.
Creamy Collard Green Gratin
Yield 6
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons, olive oil
- 8 cups chopped collard greens, ribs removed
- Kosher salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 (8 ounce) bricks cream cheese
- 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup panko bread crumbs
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- In a large oven safe skillet (I used my 10 inch cast iron skillet) add olive oil and set
- over medium high heat.
- Add in collard greens, cover the pan and let the collard greens start to wilt. Uncover
- and stir until the greens start to soften. This will take longer than spinach since
- collard greens are much tougher.
- Once the greens are soft ad in cream cheese. Stir and break up the cream cheese
- until it’s melted and super creamy.
- Stir in Parmesan cheese and remove from the heat.
- In a small bowl mix together panko crumbs and olive oil. Sprinkle topping over
- collard green mixture.
- Bake for about 10 minutes until the bread crumbs are golden brown.