These are not your grandmother's collard greens

SOMEBODY'S been messing with our mess of collards.

For a couple of hundred years in the South, cooks were content with the same plan: Cut out the tough stems, cut up the big leaves, cook them for a long, long (long, long) time, until they're falling apart and intensely collardy. Serve them up with a little pepper vinegar.

It was good enough for our grandmothers. But now a new generation of chefs and cooks are taking collards to places our grandmothers never imagined.

They're grinding them into pesto. They are putting raw collards in salads and slaws. They're pickling the stems and turning the leaves into juice. And you know what? It's all good. Really good.

For an episode of her PBS show "A Chef's Life," about cooking in Eastern North Carolina, chef Vivian Howard made collard dolmades, stuffed with sausage, cranberries and pecans. "Kind of like Thanksgiving wrapped up in a collard," she said.

"There's been this intense interest in kale," Howard added. "We have this reaction: 'Well, collards are way better than kale.' "

In her cookbook on healthier Southern cooking, Lighten Up, Y'all, author Virginia Willis includes a vividly green collard pesto with a recipe for butternut squash and chickpea soup.

"One of the things I try to do is mash things up with Southern," she said. When she's developing recipes, she'll ask herself, "What can I do to really celebrate Southern in not a typical fashion?"

Collards are starting to catch on around the country, but they still communicate a basic Southernness in your cooking style.

"Collards are so emblematic of the South," said Howard. "If you cook with collards, it says, 'I'm cooking Southern,' and then you put a modern spin on it."

That includes collard chips, a variation on kale chips. She cuts out the stems, slices the leaves into ribbons and drops them in a deep fryer for 10 seconds.

If you get collards while they're young and tender, rather than waiting until fall for the big "elephant ear" mature collards, you can do a lot of the things you'd do with kale. They are in the same botanical family, along with cabbages, turnips and kohlrabi, all prized for high levels of vitamin C, selenium and fiber.

"I think there may be a little kale fatigue," Willis said. "Or people are genuinely becoming aware of the benefits of other brassicas."

You have to understand collards in order to experiment with them, though. Things like collard pesto work better with younger, more tender collards. If you have a large bunch, use the more tender leaves further inside the bunch.

The biggest leaves may still need long-cooking, although you can get creative with them, too. Willis loves to top cooked collards with an egg for breakfast.

"That is the breakfast of champions," she said, laughing. "They've got a great flavor."

Instead of discarding the thick stems, she's been slicing them thinly and sauteeing them before she adds the leaves, sort of the way you'd cook Swiss chard.

People always experiment with what they have, said Howard. In North Carolina, she's been introduced to collard kraut, a very old tradition, and people in her area love cabbage collards, an heirloom-seed version that's sweeter.

It's all just adapting to the food of your place, she said. "Southern food isn't just southern food. It's our indigenous food."

COLLARD GREEN PESTO

4 ounces (about 4 cups) stemmed, chopped collard greens

Juice of 1/2 orange

1/4 cup chopped pecans

2 tablespoons grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil

Coarse kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Bring a small pot of water to boil. Add the collards, working in batches if needed, and cook just until bright green, about 2 minutes. Drain well.

Place blanched collards in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to grind. Add the orange juice, pecans, cheese and oil. Pulse to combine. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. (You can also chop the collards for a more rustic consistency.)

Refrigerate and serve at room temperature. Makes about 1 cup.

COLLARD COBB SALAD

2 bunches collard greens, trimmed and sliced (about 6 cups)

2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

4 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and diced

2 ripe avocados, peeled and diced

1/2 cup pecan halves, toasted in a dry skillet

1/2 cup (about 6 slices) bacon, cooked and diced

2 ounces crumbled blue cheese

CREAMY LEMON DRESSING:

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1/2 cup olive oil

Whisk together the lemon juice, garlic and mustard. Whisk in the olive oil. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Place the greens in a large salad bowl. Add the tomatoes, diced egg, avocado, pecan halves, bacon and blue cheese. Toss well to mix. Drizzle with enough dressing to moisten it all, then toss again. Serve with any extra dressing on the side. Makes about 6 servings.

BLUE COLLARD DIP

This may be the perfect tailgate-season dip. Great for a holiday hors d'oeuvres platter, too.

1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 to 2 yellow onions, peeled and sliced

6 to 8 slices bacon

2 cups cooked, chopped, drained collards (see note)

1 (14.5-ounce) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, or 1 cup slow-roasted tomatoes, chopped

1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1/2 tablespoon freshly ground pepper

1 tablespoon hot sauce

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

8 ounces softened cream cheese

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sour cream

Warm the vegetable oil in a skillet with a lid and stir in the onion. Cover and cook slowly over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions are very soft and caramelized. (Can be made in advance and saved to finish the dip.)

Cook the bacon in a heavy skillet over medium heat until browned. Drain on a paper towel and chop.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the well-drained collards with the onions, bacon and all the remaining ingredients. Turn into a 1-quart baking dish or ovenproof pie plate.

Place in a 350-degree oven and bake about 20 minutes, until bubbly. Serve with crackers, pita chips or raw vegetables.

Note: To cook the collards, slice away and discard the stems. Stack the leaves and cut into strips. Bring 4 to 6 cups water or a mix of water and chicken broth to boil in a large pot. Stir in the collards. Cover, reduce heat to medium low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes to an hour, until very soft.

Makes about 6 cups.