Yummy Swiss Chard Recipe (It's A Superfood) And Why You Don't Need A Knife Like They Are Showing In This Photo!
Everyone loves a good user friendly but super healthy recipe. This is simple and so yummy it disappears. You may want to double it. Here we go. My mother in law hates raisins but I forgot and put raisins in the pan but she didn’t even notice because they just cooked down so nicely in this dish. AND she made my father in law try it because it was so yummy. Ok so here it is, fresh from my awake and blogging even though I should be fast asleep form of memory. More importantly this is a delicious and full of super immune boosting foods recipe. Everything should be organic when possible and not organic when you are just too busy to make it all the way to the farmers market or co-op or too broke and feeding too many people to pull it off anymore. Hey, we’ve all been there.
1 bunch swiss chard
1/2 bulb fresh garlic (not a 1/2 clove, 1/2 bulb, so that’s lots of garlic)
2 Tablespoons butter or maybe a little more let’s be honest here
1 teaspoon good quality salt
2 Tablespoons sesame seeds (I used raw but toasted is fine too)
1/4 cup raisins (these really should be organic, grapes are heavily sprayed)
1 oz water
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1-2 (really just filled the cap and poured so its about 1 1/2 teaspoons) pomegranate concentrate, or honey if you are fresh out of this staple ingredient
Wash and de-stem the chard saving the stems. You do not have to spend an hour de-stemming the chard like they are presumable doing in the photo that I put with this post. All you do is hold the stem end of the chard leaf in one hand (your right hand if you are a righty ) and with the other hand rip off the leafy part. Start where the leaf begins and just slide your hand up the leaf ripping it off the stem. 2 second action. Quite satisfying too. The next part you do need a knife for though.
Chop the leafy part of the chard roughly and place in a bowl. Chop the stems as thin as you have patience for. Pause to cut a kiwi in half, get a spoon, and give it to the toddler so she will keep her fingers off the cutting board.
Peel and chop the garlic.
Use a good pan. Do not use toxic nonstick, get yourself a good ol cast iron pan. You will be glad you did.
Heat the pan gently on like 2 or 3 heat level or low/med. Add the butter and garlic. Let them cook gently till definitely not raw but not brown. Add sesame seeds, give them a few minutes to sort of fry and brown a little, then salt and chard stems. Allow to cook until stems have softened. No one loves to chew chard stems all night. Add raisins, water, chard leaves, balsamic. Let it cook down stirring every few minutes. You want the balsamic to cook down a bit and everything a little shmooshkaly but still kind of chewy so it has a satisfying bite. When you think its almost done, add the pomegranate concentrate. Be careful, it burns easily, mix it in well and cook a minute or 2 more.
There. You made Swiss Chard for dinner. And everyone loved it! Good job, you totally rock.
