4 posts tagged “swiss chard”

I think we did a good job of using up our CSA veggies this week. After a week-plus off from having sauteed greens, we ended up making sauteed chard, which turned out really good. I don't know what it was about this time as compared to the last few times, but it was much tastier and more tender. Leah sauteed some onions and garlic and then added in the chard and we squeezed some lemon juice and added some lemon zest to it. maybe it was the zest that did the trick. We also had our yukon gold potatoes with lemon and parsley, which made them seem lighter.

For dessert, we just had some vanilla ice cream with CSA strawberries, chopped banana and chocolate sauce. Very simple, very delicious and a good way to use a pint of small berries.

Sunday we had to go pick up our new CSA basket for the week, but we still had a lot of stuff left from the previous basket! Since we liked the sauteed salad we made last week, we decided to have it with dinner to make use of the beets, fava beans and swiss chard. While at the farmer's market, we also spied some squash leaves at one of the flower vendors, in with the herbs they sell. We had these a few years ago and it's been hard to find ever since. It seems nobody thinks people will like them, but they are like eating the squash version of pea vines: very tender with a mild flavor. So, we got some to add to the sauteed greens. All in all, it was just ok. I just think we are done with sauteed greens for a while. They are getting tiresome. And the largest fava beans were mealy, which was a disappointment.

Sunday morning's CSA leftovers meal, however, was much tastier! I made home fries with the rest of the cooked yukon gold potatoes and some peppers from the market. I chopped up and pan-fried a couple slices of bacon, then removed the bacon bits and fried the potatoes and peppers in the bacon fat. Mmmmm, bacon grease..... Then I just crumbled the bacon bits on top when I served it. We were out of ketchup, so we ate it with some of the pepper sauce, which was awesome!

After the lard-fest of the weekend, Monday called for some lighter fare. We got broccoli and green beans as part of our CSA this week, but not a lot of either one. Leah got a big cauliflower to try pickling, but wasn't going to be able to use it all, so we added the rest to our dinner. We also got a couple HUGE heirloom tomatoes, one of which was getting smashed on the bottom because it was so heavy, and a large cucumber, so I made a salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and dill, with a light balsamic vinagrette. Leah tossed the broccoli, cauliflower and green beans with olive oil, salt, pepper and lemon zest and roasted them in the oven with a couple chicken breasts, and finished them with a squeeze of lemon juice at the end. It was delicious and filling and there wasn't a starch in sight!  So of course, we had rootbeer floats for dessert to make up for that :P

This dinner was all Leah! She marinated two whole chicken breasts in the leftover balsamic-honey syrup from dessert the night before with garlic, pepper sauce and a little red wine. Then she roasted them in the oven with a little more pepper sauce to add some extra flavor. The pepper sauce is from California, by Pepper Plant. It's not spicy, just really flavorful. We picked up a couple bottles after having some on potatoes during brunch in Pacific Grove and plan to use it a lot in our cooking this summer. Luckily, we found out that it's also carried locally at Central Market as well, so we can replenish our supplies when we run out!

The rice was Leah's take on kale-rice, but with swiss chard instead. She steamed the chopped up chard, onions and garlic in the rice cooker with the rice and a mix of water and chicken broth. When the rice was done, she just stirred everything together and added a little butter, salt and pepper. It was really tasty! I ate a ton at lunch today with my leftover chicken.

Leah did all the work for this meal, which turned out great! She made a salad of sauteed swiss chard and chiogga beets, topped with feta cheese, a few sliced turnips and a vinaigrette with oregano and parsley from the garden. It was awesome!

She also grilled burgers (made from mini-cattle ground beef from the farmer's market again) and sauteed the spring walla walla onions from the CSA basket. Everything turned out so good! I toasted the buns on the grill and managed not to burn them, so that was like a bonus :)