What on Earth do I do with Chard?

by Valorie Delp | More from this Blogger

Our adventures in the Botanical Gardens on Thursday proved to provide quite the amount of blog fodder. I wrote about planning to have a healthy lunch in my mission possible journal in weight loss. I wrote about the twins' tantrums in the baby blog. And now I'm writing about the bounties from gardening class in the food blog.

One of the side benefits of having my kids in a gardening class is that my kids harvest their own produce. Every week we abound in good fruits and vegetables. Fresh garlic, cherry tomatoes, basil--you name it--they've brought it home. I'm generally not lacking in the ability to find something to do with their bounty.

But this week they brought home chard. For me at least, chard is unchartered territory. I have no idea what to do with chard. I didn't even know what chard was. I certainly don't consider it to be a common vegetable in the way that zucchini or corn is. But nonetheless, I have chard sitting on my counter waiting to be turned into something delicious.

What is chard?

The first place I looked was our very own search engine on families.com. Surely Libby, or Catherine would have blogged on chard right? But no, unless I missed it, the only one blogging about eating chard is Aimee over in pets. Apparently swiss chard is an excellent iguana food. But since I have no iguanas, I'm going to have to come up with something better.

Chard is a relative of beets, and the leaves of the two plants look very similar. Chard, however, has been bred to have highly nutritious and flavorful leaves. . .but the root is not edible.

After reading up on my chard facts, I finally decided on a recipe to try. I hope you like it!

You will need:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 shallot, chopped

2 green onions, chopped

1/2 cup garbanzo beans, drained

salt and pepper to taste

1 bunch red Swiss chard, rinsed and chopped

1 tomato, sliced

1/2 lemon, juiced

Directions

Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Stir in shallot and green onions; cook and stir for 3 to 5 minutes, or until soft and fragrant. Stir in garbanzo beans, and season with salt and pepper; heat through. Place chard in pan, and cook until wilted. Add tomato slices, squeeze lemon juice over greens, and heat through. Plate, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Other Vegetarian Dishes You Might Want to Try:

Black Bean Quesadillas

Two Tasty Vegetarian Casseroles

Vegetarian Soups for the Crock Pots

Learn more about Valorie Delp

Hello everybody! My name is Valorie and I am one busy lady! When I'm not writing or editing for families, I am busy trying to get my brood of 5 in line.

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