Fancy Pants Swiss Chard with Sun Dried Tomatoes, Pine Nuts and Garlic

Fancy Pants Greens Swiss Chard with Sun Dried Tomatoes, Pine Nuts and Garlic

Serves - 4
Difficulty - Easy Peasy
Prep Time - 5-10 Minutes
Cook Time - 5 Minutes

Ingredients:
1-1/2 lbs Organic Swiss Chard (1 Bunch), washed and chopped coarsely
4 Pieces Sun Dried Tomatoes, julienned
2 Tbsp Pine Nuts
1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 Cloves Garlic, sliced thinly
Sea salt
Black Pepper
Red Pepper Flake (optional)
Parmesan Cheese (optional)

Wash and chop Swiss Chard. Be sure to keep the stems and chop them too. Separate the stems from the leaves because they will need to cook a tad longer.

Bring large pan of water to a boil and drop in a little sea salt. Once boiling, add Swiss Chard stems and blanch 30 seconds before adding in the Swiss Chard chopped leaves.

Blanch Swiss Chard for 1 minute. Remove Swiss Chard leaves and stems with slotted spoon and drain well. I place them atop paper towels to fully drain off liquid. (You can also steam these). You can also place blanched leaves into a bowl of ice water to shock them and stop the cooking, but honestly? I don’t do this most of the time. I’m going so fast, I usually drain and drop them right back on the heat to finish the dish and get ‘em on the table!

Heat sauté pan with EVOO and garlic over medium heat. Stir for 2 minutes over medium heat until garlic starts to become tender. Add pine nuts and sun dried tomatoes and cook another minute or two. Add Swiss Chard stems and pieces.

Season with sea salt or Kosher salt and black pepper. Sometimes I add in red pepper flakes but that’s optional! Cook over medium heat about 2 minutes or until SC is done to your preference. I like it to still have some “bite” or tooth. That’s known as al dente. Top with a little grated parmesan and serve. The parmesan is optional too! Serve immediately.

SusieT’s Note:

Swiss Chard is a truly versatile green. You can flavor it so many ways. This is a basic Tuscan style recipe and works great as a breakfast green, believe it or not! I love to make this in the morning and serve it under a poached or soft boiled egg with a smidge of goat cheese. *drool* Swiss Chard is a great way to start your day with a power packed portions of calcium, Vitamin C, Vitamin K1, B Vitamins, magnesium, potassium, selenium and zinc.


Nutritional Information - Single Serving





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Spicy Sambal Spinach

Serves 2
Difficulty – Easy
Prep Time – 2 Minutes
Cook Time – 4 Minutes

Ingredients:


Spicy Sambal Spinach with grape tomatoes, pine nuts,
and garlic.

6oz Baby Spinach, fresh
2 tsp Sambal Oelek
2 Large Cloves Garlic
1 tsp Olive Oil
Kosher Salt and Black Pepper to taste
8 Grape Tomatoes – optional
1 Tablespoon Pine Nuts - optional


Make Ahead Tip: Toast pine nuts if desired on a roasting pan in the oven at 300° until golden. You will need to stir these frequently to prevent burning. Takes about 5 minutes. Make up a bunch of the toasted pine nuts and use them to top anything you can imagine!

Quarter tomatoes and set them aside.
Peel and thinly slice garlic cloves. (I’m not a big fan of pre-prepared garlic. Buy a head and slice it on demand.) Heat sauté pan on high until hot. Add olive oil and garlic and stir for about 1-2 minutes, or until you see the garlic slices just beginning to brown.
Add spinach, salt, and pepper. Let spinach sit in pan undisturbed for about 30 seconds. Stir spinach and move it in the pan so that the bottom spinach is on top and the top is on bottom. Keep tossing until it’s just at the “wilted” stage.

Turn off heat on the stove and add Sambal Oelek. And quartered grape tomatoes and pine nuts. Stir through and serve hot off the stove!


SusieT Notes:
Sambal Oelek is seriously good stuff man. It adds a chili-garlic sauce heat with a touch of salty-vinegar edge and works great with protein or veggies. It’s also a good substitute for Harissa – that Middle Eastern chili condiment that is difficult to find here in the States. Keep it refrigerated after opening and it stays happy for a while – but it won’t last that long…

Nutritional Information Entire Recipe:

Nutritional Information Single Serving:

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Zucchini Zoodles

Serves 3
Difficulty – Easy Peasy
Prep Time – 5 Minutes
Cook Time – 5 Minutes

Ingredients:2 Large Zucchini
4 Large Cloves Garlic
Kosher or Sea Salt
Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Optional Mexican Spices (We did this version to eat with Four Chile Grilled Chicken) – Spice it up any way you like!
1 tsp Cumin
½ tsp Coriander

Cut zucchini in about 3 chunks (whatever fits in your spiral slicer). Crank the handle and run it through your spiral slicer.

Now heat a pan to screeching hot. The secret is getting the pan really HOT before putting in the zoodles.

Add olive oil and garlic and let it sizzle wizzle for a minute or so.

Add zucchini and spices. Now walk away. Alton says, “Walk Away!” (too many people fiddle with their food.)

At two minutes on screeching hot heat, toss zucchini, then walk away again.

One more minute (a total of three minutes) and it’s done! Voila! Now how easy, right?

Remove it from heat and serve with anything you can imagine. I used Feta to go with the Four Chile Chicken, but queso fresco would work or Cotijilla, parmesan, asiago, anything sharp!

SusieTs Notes:
Now don’t go cooking this zucchini to kingdom come or I will personally hunt each of you down like a rabid dog and bite you! This needs to be cooked to al dente (or to the tooth) which means, it has to have a little bite or texture to it. If it’s mushy, send it back to the chef! Ick!

Twirl it and swirl it. Eat it with sauce or by itself with the olive oil, garlic and spices. And it will go with any protein! It’s very versatile this love bundle of functional – our oodles and oodles of zoodles. I love that I could eat this whole plate and not have to spend 15 minutes in a confessional with my priest!

Oh and if you don't have a zoodler, go knock the cobwebs off the potato peeler and start peeling long strips along the length of the zucchini. You will then have tagliatelli or long strips about 3/8" wide that look a lot like fettucini and provide the same sauce delivery system functionality these zoodles provide!

Zoodles go great with Four Chili Grilled Chicken!

Nutritional Information