blog of matthew moore

So since leaving the "Dark Side" and going vegan I’ve been cooking like a mad man out of hell. Which has been awesome, because I love to cook and it’s feels good to bring wholesome food to the family table. However, I wouldn’t say that my cooking skills are all that great — and what I’ve learned has been through trial and error. I digress.

Because, as you can imagine, going vegan requires eating more vegetables I decided to get as much as I can in organic form and from our local area to help in the reduction in carbon. Thus I opted to use a local service called Door to Door Organics. These guys are awesome and last week we received our first order. In our order it contained Red Chard, something I’ve never seen nor eaten. But I was determined to give it ago and integrate it somehow into our new diet.

A little about Red Chard. It can be prepared the same as Swiss or Green Chard, it just has more antioxidant value. Red Chard only includes the red stalks and leaves with Red veins. Chard is delicious added to a stir fry since the stalks add a nice crunch and can be used like celery only with color (antioxidants and more nutritious) and the leaves add some nice green to it.

Upon trying it raw it was very bitter and I was a bit worried how it might be used. So I opened my two new vegan cookbooks and found nothing. On to google. As a result I found plenty of recipes but all seem to be exasperating so as a result I came up with my own.

So here you go, my first recipe, Sautéed Red Chard — with some help on how to clean and prep the vegetable from a few searches in Google:

Sautéed Red Chard

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 1 bunch Red Chard (or Green or Swiss)
• 1 cup chopped red onion
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1/4 sea salt
• 1/4 fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
• 1 teaspoon worcestershire (optional)
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock

1. Wash chard by gently submersing in cool water several times.
2. Remove the stems from leaves and chop stems into 1 inch pieces. Set aside.
3. Stack the washed leaves and roll them in to a long scroll. Using a sharp knife, cut the scroll in quarters.
4. Mix nutmeg, paprika, parsley, salt, pepper, sugar, mint and worcestershire. Set aside.
5. Heat a sauce pan over medium-high heat, add the olive oil and chopped stems and saute for about 5 minutes.
6. Add in the onion and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
7. Stir in vegetable stock and mixed ingredients.
8. Add the wet chard leaves, one handful at a time, stirring after each addition.
9. After all the leaves have been added, immediately cover the pan with a tight fitting lid and continue cooking over high heat for about 2 or 3 minutes. Uncover and cook just until most of the liquid has evaporated (another 1 minute or so).

If you try it please let me know what you think.