Monday, June 18, 2012

Swiss Chard

Here is what I know about Swiss Chard:
1) It is nutritious
2) It is typically prepared the same way you'd do spinach
3) It is easy to grow
4) You can eat the leaves and the stems (cooked).
5) It comes in a "rainbow" variety that I sadly did not buy seeds for, so mine is plain green

Here is what I know about myself:
1) I don't really like cooked spinach unless it is inside pasta.
2) Sometimes I grow things just because I can, not because I necessarily like to eat them (i.e., 'The Great Radish Debacle of 2009")


So, now that we have this successful crop of nutritious and "versatile" Swiss chard, what are we to do with it?

I've made two dishes so far, one with pasta and mushrooms and garlic (pretty good although let's just say there were maybe extra nutrients in that batch, as it was before I read the recommendation to wash the chard 2 or 3 times.  That is quite necessary.), and one where I added it last-minute to a fajita-like dish that we ate with rice.  The pictures of that dinner, when taken using the "vivid color" filter on my camera were fairly amazing (in terms of color, not composition, which is clearly an area of improvement for me):


Any ideas? (besides lasagna) There's kind of a lot more of this stuff on the way.

1 comment:

  1. I have used it in stuffed shells (chiffonade the leaves once they are clean and mix into the cheese filling before baking), enchiladas, soups, and just sauteed with onions and a bit of vinegar (I don't really love cooked spinach either, and this somehow seems different to me). I've also put it on pizza and in calzones. My favorite is cooked with the lentil taco filling I make.

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