If Willy Wonka Could Make Vegetables

Umpa, Lumpa, Dippity-dee

When I saw this striking vegetable in the supermarket, I wondered how it managed to hide from me all these years. Maybe it was more me hiding from them. But now that I am exploring vegetables these leafs screamed "Look at me!" I'm a sucker for color; I had to grab a bunch. But how should I prepare them?

I found a delicious and easy recipe for swiss chard from a YouTube channel called Hungry in Brooklyn. The video itself was nicely edited, and I would have believed it if she said this was a new web series for the cooking or travel channel.

In her video, Shea Hess talks to a Chef and a famer to find out some tips on this psychedelic vegetable. Here are a few things to know about swiss chard:

- It is pronounced CHard like Chocolate
- Leafy vegetable similar to spinach
- Member of the beet family
- Spring/fall are the best times to buy

Here is the recipe she used:

Sautéed Swiss Chard with Shallots and Garlic

Strip leaves from the rib (stem)

Cut off ends of rib

Cut the ribs into small 1/4in pieces

Chop 2 shallots

Chop 2 cloves of garlic

2 tbs of olive oil

1/4 cup of white wine

1 tbs of butter

Directions:

Toss olive oil, Chard ribs, shallots, and garlic into pan

Add a little salt

Add the leafs of chard (blanch two minutes before hand)

Add white wine

Cook it down, so the alcohol evaporates

Add butter

The recipe was a little time consuming, only because she says you should blanch the vegetables to reduce bitterness and to prevent burning. Total time to cook was about 25 minutes, but the results were fantastic. Not only were the colors bright and vibrant, but it tasted phenomenal. The center rib from the chard gave the dish a crunchy dimension, and the leaves tasted like a wonderful shade of spinach.  

It was an excellent side dish to steak. The crispy outside of the steak and the crunchy ribs were a good pairing. Also, if you’re looking for a dish to give your dinner a little liveliness, then chard is the way to go. It looks like something out of the Willy Wonka factory, but it tastes so much better.

One thing to note if you are having company or want left overs: the leaves cook down a lot, and I was left wanting more. A whole bunch of chard easily boiled down to about two cups. This was fine for me, but if you’re having guests, or you want to have left overs I would recommend cooking two bunches. 

Check out more of Hungry in Brooklyn’s videos here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/hungryinbrooklyn

How to Cook Collard Greens like a Brazilian

I hate collard greens. In fact, if you had told me last year that I was not only going to cook, but I was going to enjoy them too - I would have laughed in your face. Don't get me wrong, I love a good salad, but something about reducing greens down to mush is not appetizing to me.

Out of Your Food Comfort Zone
One of the benefits of not eating any grains is that you are forced to experiment with different sources for carbohydrates. Vegetables become a main player in your diet and not just the sidekick. Eating paleo allows you to discover a whole new world of foods. Maybe it was just me, but I found that when I was eating a high carb diet (mostly whole-grain) I little to no tolerance for vegetables. I just didn't care to eat them. Now, I get giddy over seeing something wildly new to me like bok choy.

Collard greens was a stretch for me too, but I was excited about trying something new. My question was: how in the world do you cook these if you don't want them to turn into mush? Enter Brazilian style collard greens. I found this deliciously simple recipe on Gourmet.com. Here is the long list of ingredients for the dish:

1 1/4lb collard greens
3 garlic cloves
1 tbs of olive oil

A Delicious Brazilian Secret
Simple, so what's the secret? The secret lies in the method of cutting the leaves. First you trim the center rib from the leaves, then you stack them on top of each other, roll them and slice ever so thinly (a cooking technique called chiffonade). Because you are slicing the leaves so thin this allows them to cook much faster then normal. The cooking part of the dish only takes three minutes, which is ridiculous because other recipes would have you cooking collard greens for around an hour.

My Thoughts on the Recipe
The outcome of this simple Brazilian technique: The best collard greens I've ever had. Granted I haven't had that many versions, but the flavor and texture of this dish was much different than then others I had in the past. Taking out the center rib is another fantastic tip that will make your collard greens taste better. If you remove the rib before you start cooking, you'll have more of the tasty leaf and less of the crunchy flavorless rib.

Props to Gourmet.com for this delicious recipe, and if a northern guy can make it, than anyone can. Here is a link to the recipe, and here is a link the video (which is really helpful). Happy cooking!