Tia Mowry's Secret Ingredient For Collard Greens - Exclusive

When the best food holiday of the year is on the horizon, you don't mess around — and neither does Tia Mowry. The "Sister, Sister" actress revealed her secret to mashed potatoes ahead of Thanksgiving (a garlic confit), and the family recipe that fills up a spot on her dining room table. In an exclusive interview with Mashed, Mowry commented on her most talked about recipes and her daily dinner routine. Although her kids love that no-bake macaroni and cheese, her holiday collard greens take the cake — and apple pie.

According to All Recipes, the dish normally consists of large green leaves with the stems removed. It's a popular Southern food that has many culinary uses, such as in soups and salads, or is often paired with meats. Collard greens are known to have a bitter taste and often come out during Thanksgiving traditions. In the Mowry household, the dish has been passed down for generations, as far back as the television personality's great-grandmother. Yet, the "Family Reunion" star does it a little differently.

"What I do differently from my grandmother, my mother, and my great-grandmother, they would usually season the greens once the liquid has been in the pot," Tia Mowry told Mashed. "I season my greens in olive oil so that the flavor is so much more robust," she said. In order to achieve that more "robust" flavor, you should refrain from adding the seasonings to the water that you are cooking the collard greens in, rather, Mowry advises that you add the seasonings to the sauteed onions before adding in the liquids, per her collard greens recipe. The former Disney star explained that when you combine olive oil and bacon in the pan you should "add your spices in then." Mowry continued that you can omit the olive oil if you would prefer to utilize natural fats from the bacon.

She also says you can leave the stems in for "a nice crunch to the greens," but not to cut them too thick. The food personality shares her beloved collard greens recipe on Food Network's website, in which the seasoning is a variety of seven different spices (and some dry mustard). 

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