My parents owned a Mexican restaurant in Anchorage for a short time while I was growing up.
The Chili Verde we served at that restaurant was pork based. But it was very different from almost all other Chili Verde I've ever had, by necessity.
At that time in the 70's, tomatillos were not available in Alaska. So the previous owner of the restaurant developed a recipe where the 'Verde' was greens based. I think it was a combination of mustard and collard greens. It sounds weird, but it was actually delicious. In fact I still crave it all the time, with no way to quench that craving, as the recipe has been lost for decades now.
I just think it's kind of interesting that a complete re-thinking of a popular recipe out of need could develop a very different, but equally delicious variant.