Swiss chard is one of those leafy greens that I have always ignored – until this past weekend when they accidently ended up in my grocery cart. I can’t state enough how much I ended up LOVING this dish, which can be eaten with rice or bread (true to Lebanese eating habits!). It might take a little time preparing as the chard needs to be thoroughly cleaned first.
Let’s get started.
You will need:
- 1-2 large onion
- 2-3 garlic
- 1-2 tablespoon olive oil
- lots of swiss chard (they come in bunches here, so one large bunch- not very mathematical sorry )
- optional: 1/2 cup ground meat or ground soy-meat (which is what i used)
- optional: 2 Tbps coriander (for added health benefits!)
- optional: 1/2 cup rice (side dish)
- salt and pepper to taste
How to:
- After cleaning the leafy greens, make sure to chop off the thick stems as these would be really difficult to chew
- Boil them for about 10 minutes maximum to soften
- In the mean time, chop onions and saute them with the 1 Tbsp oil and the spices. Add soy meat* once the onions turn translucent
- Add the swiss chard to the onion-soy meat mixture and let it cook for an additional 15-20 minutes (or till the mixture is not very soggy)
- Swiss chard is very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol.
- It is also a good source of Thiamin, Folate and Zinc, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Copper and Manganese.
Calories and servings:
Makes 4 plates
Calories/serving (with soymeat, no rice or bread) = 160 calories
Let’s dig in!
T
*some soy meat needs to be blanched in hot water prior to being used, please follow the instructions on your package for this. I personally just added water from the swiss chard to the soy meat for it to really capture all the flavor.
