recipe: lemon-feta chard

via weheartit - yes, I ate this before thinking to take a picture of my own ingredients. Oops.

Right now, we’re growing some chard in our local community garden plot. It’s really gorgeous – bright magenta stems with leaves as thick as leather. I threw together this concoction last night with a bunch of leaves we’d picked over the weekend and was pleasantly surprised by the result. Chard falls into that fantastically healthy “leafy green” category, along with spinach and kale and collards and the like. I’m partial to it for its robust thickness and mild flavor (none of that mustard green bitterness), which allow it to substitute for spinach in many recipes without getting quite so wilted and stringy. However, I bet this recipe would work well with other greens too. It’s quick, healthy, and full of flavor:

Lemon-Feta Chard Sauté

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• half a red onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• one bunch of chard, leaves chopped into large pieces and stems removed
• 1/4 cup white wine
• juice of 1 slice of fresh lemon
• handfull of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1/4 cup total of parmesan or feta cheese (or both, half and half – come on, IT’S CHEESE)
• Salt and pepper to taste

How To:

• Warm olive oil in a pan over medium heat, adding onion and garlic and cooking until clarified. Cutting up the chard while these guys cook seemed to work well for me in terms of time. I am all about multi-tasking, people.
• Add the chard and wine, and sauté until the leaves have shrunk and seem tender. This should allow time for some of the wine to cook off, and to pour a glass for yourself to sip on.
• When the leaves look about finished, stir in the cherry tomatoes, lemon juice, salt & pepper, and half of your cheese. Allow the tomatoes to shrivel a bit and the cheese to get melty.
• Serve with remaining cheese as a garnish on top; I used parmesan during the cooking phase and topped with feta at the end, which was nice aesthetically and also maximized cheese inclusion. Priorities.

Warm, bright, healthy, comforting, and satisfying. We ate it alongside homemade bolognese + spaghetti squash, but I can also imagine it next to a piece of salmon or grilled tofu or roast chicken or lasagne. For a heartier vegetarian option, try adding a can of garbanzo beans with the chard and make it a one-pan meal. Enjoy!