Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Rainbow Chard -- The Beauty Queen of the Greens

Many books on local vegetables feature a gorgeous color photo of rainbow chard on their cover. Who can blame them? Look at this beauty queen.


Rainbow chard is beautiful, easy to cook, and it goes well with other food. I like to quickly saute my greens. So, first, I separate the leaves from the stems.


I saute them in a pan with olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes. At the end, I like to sprinkle salt and lemon juice over them to taste. Check out that tasty pan of greens! Who wouldn't want to be looking at that at the end of a hard day?


Sauteed rainbow chard goes well with many other dishes. I like to serve these greens on a bed of polenta nuzzled next to a fried egg. They are also good tossed with a long pasta or as a side for a grilled steak. Or, you can just eat them out of the pan with a fork or your hands. I admit that this pan of greens was eaten out of the pan with a fork and some fingers.

Sauteed Rainbow Chard

Ingredients:

1 bunch of rainbow chard
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 clove of chopped garlic
1 dash of red pepper flakes
salt
1 slice of lemon

Separate the leaves from the stems. Heat the olive oil in a pan over high heat until the oil is shimmering and hot. Add the garlic, cook for a few seconds until fragrant. Then add the red pepper flakes. Add the rainbow chard leaves and coat them with the oil mixture. Put a lid on the pan and cook for 3 minutes. Take off lid and cook for 3 more minutes until the greens are wilted. Take pan off heat. Sprinkle salt on greens to taste. Squeeze the lemon over the greens. Taste to see if they need more salt or lemon. Enjoy!



2 comments:

  1. Yum! My boys discovered these at whole foods. I bet they are even better out of a csa box. Next time I will try with the red pepper flakes.

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  2. Love sauteed rainbow chard! Or any green, for that matter. A trick I learned from the Deborah Madison cookbook Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone was to chop the stem and sautee them for longer, possibly adding broth and essentially braising them (15 - 25 minutes?), adding the leafy greens at the end. It increases the cooking time so I don't always do it, but it's yummy when I do.

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