“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” — Abe Lincoln
Maybe Abe was talking about Swiss chard? Because the leafy green turned out to be extremely divisive at the dinner table last night, by which I mean I loved it, and hubby hated it.
It started with a LivingSocial deal for Suburban Organics. Basically, Suburban Organics will ship fresh organic fruits and veggies to your door. I have trouble resisting group buys to begin with, and I love getting mail, and I love eating, and I love when things are marketed as organic or local or free trade or any other feel-good words. So hellz yeah I was getting this deal.
My box arrived a few days ago, and it contained some old faves (avocado! bananas! a medium-sized grapefruit!) but it also contained Swiss chard, which I couldn’t have picked out of a veggie lineup. I posted a plea for recipes on my Facebook page. Suburban Organics was cool enough to link me to a few recipes on their site, but their recipes were a bit too…well, straight-up chard. As a chard virgin, I felt more comfortable mixing the chard with a bunch of other ingredients.
Enter Brianne at Cupcakes and Kale Chips, a.k.a. my aforementioned former foodie roommate. She sent me a very complicated recipe for Mexican sweet potatoes. I dumbed it down big-time and added ham (I needed the bone for split pea soup this week). And it was nothing short of amazeballs.
Me? I LOVED IT. So tasty. There were, like 17 unique and delicious flavors going on in my mouth, and it was still delicious. Imagine throwing a party and inviting your work friends, your college friends, your gardening-club friends, and your Civil War reenactment friends and everyone miraculously gets along.
Anyway. You have to be your own judge, but I thought it was awesome. (P.S. I was also directed to this tasty-looking recipe at Smitten Kitchen, but went with the Mexican recipe because I had already eaten half a brick of havarti and figured an au gratin might not be the best idea for dinner. But I’m putting it in the mental database — clearly, for a night hubby’s not home!)
You’ll need:
- sweet potatoes (I made three)
- Swiss chard (I used four big leaves or stalks or whatever they’re called)
- olive oil
- Papa Joe’s salt
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 15-oz. can of black beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 Tbsp lime juice
- 1 Tbsp chili powder
- 1 Tbsp cumin
- 1 cup canned pineapple chunks, drained
- 1 tsp ground cilantro
- 1 cup diced ham
STEP 1: Stab the sweet potatoes with a fork a few times, and cook them in the microwave on HIGH for about 10 minutes.
STEP 2: Rub some olive oil on a pan. Chop up the Swiss chard (I found a helpful tutorial here) and heat it in a pan with the garlic and a few shakes of Papa Joe’s salt (or a mix of sea salt and black pepper).
STEP 3: In a bowl, mix the red pepper, black beans, pineapple, chili powder, cumin, cilantro, ham, and and lime juice.
STEP 4: The chard should be pretty soft now. Add the cheese and milk to the pan until melted, then puree the whole shebang in a food processor.
(No, seriously, this is the dumbed-down version! I am telling you, my friend is nuts in the kitchen.)
STEP 5: Cut open a sweet potato, scoop in some salsa, and pour a little bit of the cheesy chard sauce on top.
STEP 6: Ignore husband who clearly has no taste buds.
STEP 7: Steal hubby’s rejected cheesy chard sauce and mix it into your eggs the next morning. OM NOM NOM all over again.
Thanks for the recipe, Brianne!