Welcome to my blog. I have made it my New Year's Resolution to try more vegetables... one each month. I not only have to try them, but learn how to cook them and try several different methods. You can check out details in my "Blog Introduction" page to your left. I encourage you to read it since it explains a lot about me and my motivation. If you don't read it, please note that I call my Boyfriend Trevor "BF" for Boyfriend or Best Friend. Didn't want you to get confused.
For my first post, I'm taking you back to last month. Get your time travel party pants on... it's veggie time!
January was deemed "Chard Month" in the Pelto/Baldwin household. After one month of having Chard at least twice a week, we are now BIG fans of Chard.
For those of you who don't know anything about Chard, I'll give a brief synopsis but encourage you to do a google search. Chard is a large leafy green and is actually related to the beet. It is high in fiber, vitamins A, K, C and E among others. The large leaves are always green, but the stalks come in a variety of colors. Swiss Chard typically has a white stalk, while Red Chard typically has a red stalk (bet you couldn't have guessed!)
The one that amazed me was Rainbow Chard. Click here to see a Google image search. Amazing, right?! That's naturally occurring. CRAZY. That's crazy people. Who needs genetic engineering when that's natural? Ok enough about Rainbow Chard... my nerd alert is going off.
I had a difficult time finding Swiss Chard, but was told by the nice produce man at Fred Meyer's that "they're basically all the same", ha! We mostly used Red Chard and some Rainbow Chard for fun. The leaves are huge! Like two-produce-bag-four-hands huge. You basically just wash and tear the leaves up. If you want to use the stalks (very similar to celery but with a different taste) you can just chop those up as necessary. I started throwing the stalks in often because they tasted good and I felt throwing them away was a waste.
The recipes I tried:
Tortellini Soup (made this twice, it's that good and easy)
Sauteed Swiss Chard with Parmesan Cheese (made this at least three times, great side dish)
Onion Pizza with Ricotta and Swiss Chard (this was more complicated than anticipated, but delicious)
The last recipe was a great segue to February's vegetable. Drum roll please... dududududud... BEANS. Now I told you all in my blog introduction that I might take some creative liberties with the definition of a vegetable. I want to explore beans, which are legumes, which for this veggiephobic (my term) is close enough. I'll throw in some green beans and we'll be ok.
I've included some photos below as a summary, but normally I will post about one recipe at a time and my experience with it. Since I'm a month behind, I had to play some catch up, I hope you all don't mind!
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| Chickpea Soup with Chard (and parmesan and garlic toast) |
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| Onion Pizza with Ricotta and Chard (the BF wanted mozzarella on one half) |
I am going to make the Chickpea Soup with Chard recipe this week. I love your presentation with the bread. I will modify with vegetable stock and let you know how much I love it! Thank you for sharing your veggie experience. I know it's a big step. :)
ReplyDeleteOh cool! Thanks for reading :)
DeleteI definitely fiddled with the Chickpea Soup recipe, and I know your skills are superior to mine, so you'll have no problems! For example the Garbanzo beans don't come in 19 oz cans... So you just have to play with the recipe, but totally worth it! I am probably making it this weekend again.