Every year, I promise myself that I will not plant so much swisschard, but it is my favorite winter green. I try not to buy veggies from the store and just eat out of the garden. Currently, the lettuce, spinach, and swisschard are going crazy. Also, all my herbs, except for basil are thriving! We even have a few asparagus fingers coming up. But my most prized winter vegetable is swisschard.
The only problem is that it is prolific and I harvest a full basket every week which forces me to be more creative in ways to use it. My favorite Lebanese dish is stuffed swisscard with rice, garbanzo beans, parsley, mint, tomatoes, and onions cooked in a broth of lemon juice and olive oil. I cut the delicious stems off, dice and steam them to make a tahini sauce for serving with the swisschard rolls. The (tarator) sauce is also delicious with baked or grilled fish.
Yesterday, I made a pot pie and salad using the tender chard leaves mixed in with lettuce. I chopped the stems and sauted them with onion to make a gravy for the pot pie.
I’ve also baked a quiche using chard instead of spinach.
Tim gifted me a vegetarian Lebanese cookbook for Christmas and in it I found a recipe for braised chard with crispy onions and sumac, Yum! I added some fried cubed potatoes to the recipe and it was delicious!
Chop the chard, including the stems. Thinly slice three cloves of garlic. Cut into small cubes two scrubbed potatoes with skins on. Toss thinly sliced onion wth cornstarch and salt.
Fry the cubed potatoes in olive oil and set aside. Fry the treated onions and set aside. In the same oil, saute the chard and garlic till fork tender. Season with salt, chile flakes and sumac. Add the fried potatoes and garnish with the fried onions. Drizzle with lemon wedges.
What is your favorite winter vegetable?
1 lb swisschard including stems
6 T olive oil
1 medium onion thinly sliced
1 T cornstarch
3 garlic cloves thinly sliced
1/2 tsp pepper flakes (I used Aleppo flakes)
2 tsp sumac
lemon wedges