Baked Swiss Chard

Swiss Chard is a relatively new veggie for me and I love it! It has looked beautiful at the grocery store lately too so it must be in season in the winter. My favorite is the red chard but you could probably do this same recipe with green or rainbow chard. As with all greens, the leftovers are yummy for lunch with a fried egg on top. I got this recipe from the Beyond Salmon blog. Hope you enjoy!

Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of swiss chard
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• 1 TBSP heavy cream or half and half
• 1/4 cup of finely grated parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper

Prep

1. Preheat the oven to 400°
2. Wash your chard leaves thoroughly. I like to fill up the sink, submerge them and rustle them around a bit, then repeat. Chard can hold a lot of dirt so you want to make sure they're cleaned really well.
3. Once they're cleaned, pull the leaves away from the stems. You'll fold them in half down the stem and then gently pull away starting from the base and moving to the top.

4. Set the leaves aside to dry on a clean dish towel and chop your stems into 1/2 inch pieces
5. In a small casserole dish, toss your chopped stems with 1 TBSP of olive oil and about 1/4 tsp of salt and pepper.

Cook

1. Bake the casserole with the stems until they're tender and golden brown - about 20 minutes.

2. While the stems cook, make sure your leaves are dry (you could use a salad spinner too) and chop them a few times.
3. After your stems cook, pile the leaves on top of them, drizzle and toss with another 1 TBSP of olive oil and return the casserole to the oven for about 5 minutes.

4. Remove the casserole from the oven, add your TBSP of cream and taste to see if more salt and pepper are needed. Grate your 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese on top and return to the oven for a couple of minutes until the cheese is melted and the cream is bubbly.