Eat Your Greens

This is the first year I've grown swiss chard in my garden, and to say it's done well would be an understatement. Sauteing anything with garlic and olive oil is going to be great, but you can get tired of it if you have a LOT of swiss chard to use. I recently picked up a copy of Fine Cooking's Cook Fresh magazine. There was a recipe for escarole with pine nuts, raisins and capers that sounded interesting. I didn't have any escarole, but I had lots of swiss chard!

Swiss Chard with Pine Nuts, Raisins and Capers

1 large bunch of swiss chard
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 1/2 T olive oil, use 1 T w/greens, 1/2 t w/garlic
2 T pine nuts, toasted
handful of raisins
1-2 T capers
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1 t balsamic vinegar
squeeze of lemon or dash of True Lemon

Tear your swiss chard into pieces and rinse really, really well. This is the bowl from my salad spinner. After I remove the pieces of chard to the spinning basket I use the water, which has turned light green, to water my houseplants.

I recently wrote about the folks over at True Lemon sending me a True Citrus test kit to try out. While I actually did have a lemon in the fridge, I wanted to try the True Lemon crystals in this recipe.

Heat up a large pan to medium high heat, I've used my wok, and add 1 t of olive oil. Swirl it around the bottom to coat, and then add your greens. Be careful of splatters when the greens, which will still have a little water on them, hit the hot pan. It will look like a lot, but it really cooks down.

In a separate pan, toast the pine nuts over medium high heat. When they're golden brown, remove from the pan.

I use tongs to turn the greens so that they cook evenly. After about 5 minutes, cover, reduce to medium heat, and let the greens cook down for about 10 minutes.

Add the remaining olive oil to the pan you toasted the pine nuts in. Add in the garlic and lightly brown, making sure you don't burn the garlic. Add in a handful of raisins along with the capers. I used a little of the brine from the capers to help plump up the raisins.

When the swiss chard is done, remove the cover and add in the raisin mixture and the pine nuts. Sprinkle in the red pepper flakes and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Finish it off with either a squeeze of lemon or a few dashes of True Lemon. Enjoy!