Step 1

Put soaked beans in small saucepan with garlic powder, onion powder, and enough water to cover.

Step 2

Cook for about 30 minutes, or until beans are nearly done but still have a little bite. Drain beans, saving 1/2 cup of the cooking water.

Step 3

You can also cook the beans in the crockpot or Instant Pot if you prefer. Fresh cooked beans are by far better, but if you forget to soak some, use two cans of kidney beans, white beans, or pinto beans and save 1/2 cup of water when you rinse them.

Step 4

While beans cook, brown sausage well in frying pan, adding a little olive oil for turkey sausage. The crock pot kind of removes the color from browned foods, so let them get very brown.

Step 5

When sausages are nicely browned, remove from pan, cool enough to handle, and cut into slices

Step 6

Cut stems off collard green, cut into ribbons crosswise, then cut the long ribbons into 2-3 pieces and rinse.

Step 7

Place collard greens in bottom of crock pot.

Step 8

Pour 1/2 cup bean cooking liquid into pan where you cooked the sausage, add fresh garlic, and cook 2-3 minutes to deglaze pan.

Step 9

Put beans in crock pot, top with sausage, and pour deglazing liquid from pan over.

Step 10

Cook on low 4-6 hours or on high 2-3 hours, or until collard greens are quite soft and flavors are well-combined.

Step 11

Serve hot, with Parmesan cheese if desired.