Chard

I love the greens from our garden and, really, never get tired of cooking them in a very simple way.  Usually, I saute onions in olive oil, then add the greens (collards, kale, chard, mustard and turnip greens, in whatever combination was available on a gardening day).  I saute it all a bit, then add just enough water to facilitate steaming, and steam, covered, until the greens are tender.  Usually, I season with just salt, pepper and a little celery salt.  It's perfect! We not only eat it hot with our dinner but, also, I put it cold on my salads for lunch.

But, tonight, I wanted to try something different.  I turned to Deborah Madison's "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" cookbook, my "bible" over the summer when the veggies are fresh and varied.  I chose the recipe "Kale and Cannellini Beans" but I used a mixture of greens from the Garden, kale along with Swiss chard, collard greens and some turnip greens (from salad turnips) instead of just kale.  I also used a vidalia onion.  Otherwise, I pretty much followed the recipe, though I used a bit more olive oil (2 Tbsp instead of 1.5) and garlic (4 instead of 2 cloves).  I used organic canned white kidney (cannellini) beans from Trader Joe's, thoroughly rinsed.  I also used dried rosemary from Penzey's, though it would have been better to have taken fresh rosemary home from the Garden.  I was too lazy to drive back up there to take some.  I used a very yummy Nobilo New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc for the dry white wine.  A bit of overkill, I guess, but it was what we had.  (I drank a glass while cooking the dish, and it was much appreciated.) Enjoy!

We harvested Swiss chard Saturday, one of the garden's most colorful vegetables.

Lots of what people believe about Swiss chard turns out to be wrong. Here's just one example: It's not Swiss. It's Sicilian.

Overall, the chard family goes back thousands of years to Iraq. Some chards were grown in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The family's most colorful member got its start in Sicily, a big island in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Italy.

Back in the mid-1800s, however, chard was not all that popular of a crop in Europe. So seed sellers decided to see whether they could spice it up a little bit, give it a bit more cachet. They decided to call it "Swiss." After all, this variety does look kind of knickknacky Swiss–colorful, shiny, kind of hard, like a souvenir you might bring home from the Alps.

The growers hit paydirt. Seed sales jumped through the roof. The rest was history. Chalk one up for Madison Avenue.