Still Harvesting

Today's Harvest: Bright Lights Swiss Chard!

Beautiful colorful Swiss Chard. Mine is much smaller than those you see in the grocery store. It has been surviving the frosts, but not growing much, so I decided to harvest it. A very heavy frost will kill it.

When you buy Chard in the store, the stems are thick and a bit tough. Mine were thin and tender and they cooked up very quickly.

You start preparing Chard by cutting the stems separately from the leaves. With mine, I only had to chop to the leaves. With store bought I usually take the whole stem out of the leaves to chop separately.

The leaves are roughly chopped separately. Make sure you have washed your chard thoroughly. This is one of those sandy greens! Do not dry the leaves - the water clinging to them will be the cooking water later on.

I sliced a shallot thinly (because I had a shallot in my pantry - an onion would also work) and chopped up a clove of garlic.

The stems are then sauteed in a bit of olive oil with the shallot until the shallot starts to turn yellow and the stems are almost tender.

The garlic is then added for a minute or two (don't brown the garlic!).

The roughly chopped leaves are then added and tossed with the pan ingredients to wilt. Add salt and pepper to taste and let them cook with a lid on in the steam from the water still clinging to the leaves until tender. This will not take long.

Yummy Swiss Chard! If you have never tried it, I encourage you to do so. And if you have never grown it - make sure it's in your garden next year!