Gingered Chard

By wssmom • August 30, 2011 • 11 Comments

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Author Notes: In my family (meaning the parents and various aunts and uncles) the side dishes for holiday meals involve lots of cream or butter or cheese. Usually all three. This means the vegetables, including, but not limited to, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, onions, potatoes and turnips, are boiled, cloaked with cream and butter, and obscured by bread crumbs, which in turn are sprinkled with cheese. Or paprika. My mom is very big on contrast, which means that light food is always sprinkled with paprika and dark food is sprinkled with cheese. This winds up giving the holiday table a kind of bipolar look, which may have something to do with the way I am today. But I digress. This recipe involves neither cream nor butter nor cheese, and it tastes good, too. - wssmom

Serves 6

2 pounds red, yellow, orange Swiss chard
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
3 good-sized garlic cloves, smashed
1/2 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and grated
salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a large nonstick pan; add the garlic cloves and cook gently for about 3-4 minutes
Meanwhile, rinse the chard thoroughly and shake off excess water. Cut the leaves into strips and slice the stems thinly.
Add the chard to the pan in stages, then stir in the ginger and cook until tender, maybe 5-7 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Resist the temptation to sprinkle cheese on it and serve forth.