Sunday, February 19, 2012

Ready? Set. Chard!

I know; I've been eating lots of sweets latelyLots.  But there have also been greens:


some old and some new. 


I made a fabulous dijon marinated raw kale salad last week.


Also, a salad of romaine, onion, and hearts of palm (and salad toppins: sue me; I like them).


And then I decided to try chard.  I wanted a cooked green to go with my baked raspberry chipotle tofu and I can never seem to bring myself to cook kale; in my house it always finds its way into a raw salad.  Despite the fact that the organic collards were on sale I still resisted.  And so, I chose chard; red because I thought its similar hue would go well with my dinner.


I got some advice from friends who know their way around a bunch of chard and went to work.  I started out by caramelizing red onions.

they caramelized eventually
I added the chard stems since my friends' recommendations superseded the multiple internet recipes that suggested they should be discarded (!?).


And then I added the roughly rolled and sliced leaves in batches, sauteing with olive oil, Bragg's, salt/pepper, and lots of red pepper flakes: tossing as they cooked down.  It turned out sweet and tender.


I'd only ever previously eaten chard at Blossom; this was not as good, but close!


For those of you keeping score, kale is still the greens frontrunner in my book, but chard definitely kicks collards' butt.

5 comments:

  1. Yeah, I almost bought three bunches of kale yesterday because I KNEW I wanted raw kale salad, then I thought kale chips would be fun to make and then lastly, I was like - "well I COULD cook some too." But I didn't.
    I do looove chard though, both cooked and raw. For shame on the recipes that throw out the stems!
    Also...detes on the raspberry chipotle tofu?? Sounds fantastic.

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  2. foodfeud- I totally agree.
    1) raw
    2) chips
    3 or never) cooked
    I tried a bit of the chard leaf & stem raw, but wasn't into it so far. Agreed; I hate wasting food!

    As for the raspberry chipotle tofu; it was a fail. It was bottled sauce and was way too sweet for the tofu. The raspberry seeds were unsettling, as was the pinkish, pork-like tint. I wound up eating it hidden in whole wheat wraps filled to the brim with the kale salad! Thinking of trying to recreate swedish meatballs with what's left in the jar...

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  3. P.S. This post reminded me of you with all the greens shots!

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  4. I will eat chard but will never choose it. Kale, collards, mustard greens, cabbage, kale, kale, kale. Those are my favorites. Especially kale.

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  5. Collards Rule, Kale Drools... over how delicious collards are!

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