Best Sides To Serve with Mac and Cheese

Marcus graduated from high school. The ceremony was in the school auditorium — not a gymnasium, not a football field, but a proper auditorium with proper seats and proper acoustics, because the magnet school does things properly and my son graduated from it properly, in a cap and gown that fit (finally — I bought the right size), walking across a stage that held four years of debate victories and one TEDx talk and the particular weight of a boy who wrote his way into college with an essay about a Folgers can.

He found us in the audience: me, Derek, Curtis (in his wheelchair, in the front row, because the school accommodated him and because Curtis Jackson will be in the front row of his grandson's graduation or there will be consequences), Jasmine, Isaiah, Zoe, Claudette, Vanessa with Elijah, Darnell and Denise. And Terrell. Terrell was there. In the audience. Not in the front row. But there. Marcus found all of us. He nodded. The nod. The Jackson nod from a Washington boy at a graduation that a Jackson grandmother would have attended if she were alive. The nod held everyone. The nod was the speech he didn't give. Thank you. All of you. For the table. For the food. For the stove. For the showing up. For not stopping.

I made the graduation feast. The FULL feast. Everything. Fried chicken and ribs and mac and cheese and cornbread and greens and cobbler and cake and salsa and rice and peas and the entire census of the family in food form. Fifty people at the Cascade Heights house — family, church members, neighbors, Set the Table girls. Fifty people in the backyard eating the food that raised my son. The food that comes from a can. The food that comes from a woman. The food that comes from love.

When I say I made the full feast, I mean the full feast — and mac and cheese was the anchor of that table the way it always is, the thing everyone walks toward first, the dish that holds its own next to the ribs and the chicken and still gets scraped to the bottom of the pan. But mac and cheese doesn’t carry fifty people alone. It needs its people around it, the same way Marcus needed his. These are the sides that finished the table — the greens, the cornbread, the things that made the food feel like the census I was cooking it to be.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr 5 min | Servings: 12 (scale up as needed)

Ingredients

3 lbs fresh collard greens, stems removed and leaves sliced into ribbons
6 slices smoked bacon, chopped (or 1 smoked turkey leg for a lighter version)
1 large yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp black pepper
Salt to taste
For the skillet cornbread:
2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil, plus 2 tbsp for the skillet

Instructions

Cook the greens base. In a large heavy pot over medium heat, cook bacon until crisp and fat is rendered, about 6–8 minutes. Add onion and cook until softened, 4–5 minutes. Add garlic and stir for 1 minute until fragrant.
Braise the collards. Add collard greens in large handfuls, turning with tongs to coat in the fat as they wilt. Pour in chicken broth, vinegar, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 35–45 minutes, until greens are silky and tender. Taste and adjust salt and pepper.
Preheat for cornbread. While greens simmer, preheat oven to 425°F. Place a 10-inch cast iron skillet in the oven with 2 tbsp oil for 10 minutes to get very hot.
Mix the batter. Whisk together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, buttermilk, and 1/3 cup oil. Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir just until combined — do not overmix.
Bake the cornbread. Carefully remove the hot skillet from the oven and pour in the batter — it should sizzle. Return to oven and bake 20–22 minutes until golden brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean. Let rest 5 minutes before cutting into wedges.
Serve together. Plate the greens with a ladle of the pot likker spooned over the top. Serve alongside wedges of hot cornbread and your mac and cheese at the center of the table.

Nutrition (per serving)

Best Sides To Serve with Mac and Cheese — The Full Feast That Raised a Graduate