I I tilled up the vegetable garden plot yesterday, and there was one nice side benefit. Five or six Swiss chard plants were still growing out there. Most of them were red-ribbed chard, and they were a gift last summer from a friend who lives a few miles upriver from us. They were volunteers that came back up spontaneously in her 2020 vegetable garden.
We were glad to get them, and I was waiting for them to grow bigger before I harvested them. Well, they never grew a lot bigger than they were last summer. Anyway, I pulled them up, sorted, washed, and trimmed the leaves, and then cooked them. It was yesterday or never...
Pretty leaves... these are just a few of the prettiest.
After the trimming and washing, I cooked the chard leaves in water with just salt and pepper.
The green parts of the leaves along with the leaf ribs went in the pot together.
After the leaves and ribs were tender, I cut them up with a pair of kitchen scissors. Then, to "season" them, I dropped in a lump of rendered duck fat (which I just happened to have in the refrigerator) and let it melt. We'll be eating some of the chard today, with black beans, rice, and barbecued pork tenderloin.
Lovely leaves, indeed :)
ReplyDeleteI love chard, kale, collards, spinach, turnip greens, radish greens... and carrots, rutabagas, beets, and turnips. I guess that's the vegetarian side of my omnivore nature.
DeleteCan we see the chards in yesterday's first mid upper left photo? They look helthy.
ReplyDeleteYes, you can see them on the left in that photo. They were nearly hidden by fast-growing weeds.
DeleteKen this looks so taasty. We don't have any duck fat in our fridge, sadly. The chard leaves and their preparation remind me of Poke Salad.
ReplyDeleteWe had some for lunch and it was tasty. The duck fat was a bonus and the chard would also be good with butter, olive oil, or bacon grease. In moderation, of course.
DeleteI don't recall having chards otherwise than in a white sauce.
ReplyDeleteOne way to cook chard is with cream and Dijon mustard. It can be cooked any way spinach is cooked.
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