Friday, June 06, 2008

Quick chard sauté

This is so quick and easy and the usual way that I make greens but Ali liked it the other day, so I guess I should write it down for the record. It's a good thing to do with a big pile of greens from the farmers market that you bought thinking you wanted to be healthy, but now you just don't know what to do. I used rainbow chard, but any other type of chard or kale will work as well. Kale is a little tougher; I find chard is a more mellow flavor. Spinach is good but be forewarned that it contains more water so the sauté ends up more liquidy.

Take a big pile of washed and dried chard and make a stack of about 5-8 leaves at a time. Or you can roll them up into a cigar--that works too. Either way, slice down across your stack/roll and make a chiffonade of the greens. Mince one small Vidalia onion. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a pan and sauté the onion over medium-high heat until soft and lightly golden--about 5-7 minutes. Add your sliced chard and continue to sauté until it is wilted and reduced in size (another 5 or so minutes). Kale or tougher greens will take a little bit longer, so taste-test if you're not sure. Add to this a small handful of golden raisins (or dried cranberries, if you have those around instead). Remove from heat and stir in the juice from 1 lemon, salt and lots of fresh ground pepper. If you have some toasted nuts, that's great on top as well (I usually have pinenuts, but almond, walnut, anything is a good variation).

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