We meet again Swiss Chard, we meet again.
You know, being a lover of all things green, it really pains me that Swiss Chard and I didn’t really hit it off.
Sure, I consider myself a happy person most of the time, but this defeat lingers in my mind. It haunts me in my sleep.
Perhaps, the Swiss Chard’s arrival in this week’s CSA is a sign. Perhaps, the battle has been fought, but the war is not over.
Eric took one look at the Chard last night and he said, ‘Well, I guess your lips WILL be touching chard again.’ and he broke into a laughter so evil, I get chills just thinking about it. I took a piece of chard and hit him with it.
For those of you who don’t know me very well, I am a Taurus and I am as stubborn as we are described. I do not accept defeat and I am starting to think that Swiss Chard is a Taurus as well. We are butt heads.
I knew that I couldn’t let Swiss Chard out of my life just yet. It’s bright green, crinkly, and radiant leaves call out to me for some unfinished business.
So, I did what any girl looking for a Swiss Chard recipe would do and I headed over to Choosing Raw. If you have not visited this website, you really should. Gena is not only a dear friend of mine, but she is a fabulous writer, super helpful, and she whips up some amazing recipes, including Banana Soft Serve. I rest my case.
Raw & Vegan Tuna Salad
Adapted from Gena’s Raw, Vegan Tuna Salad.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked 2 hours
- 2 pickles, chopped (I didn’t have any)
- 1/2 cup cucumber, chopped (or celery)
- 1/2 cup shredded carrot
- 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 1/4 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tbsp maple syrup OR 1 tbsp pickle juice
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp Herbamare sea salt
- Freshly Ground Black pepper, to taste
- Paprika, to garnish
Directions: Place all ingredients into food processor except paprika and cucumber. Pulse until just combined (you want to leave it a tiny bit chunky). Remove from processor and stir in chopped cucumber or celery. Sprinkle with Paprika and another small dusting of Herbamare. Serve in a wrap, on a salad, or with crackers. Serves 4-6.
My mother-in-law got me hooked on this Herbamare a couple years ago and it seriously changed my life.
I had to make some modifications to Gena’s recipe based on what ingredients I had, so it didn’t come out tasting like tuna overly so, but it was still really delicious! Addicting I might say.
I didn’t have pickles or pickle juice, but I tried my best to make a pickle juice by using apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, and onion powder. It gave the salad a bit of a bite. I would still recommend using pickles + pickle juice if you can though. I also didn’t have miso.
This raw + vegan tuna salad would be excellent on crackers or on toast. I can’t wait to try it out with different things!
Tonight, I made it into a Swiss Chard wrap.
For help with the wrapping part, I used Gena’s instructions on folding a collard wrap. After washing and drying, I de-veined the stem. Or at least that’s what I told myself I was doing.
Swiss Chard is a bit hard to wrap because the leaves crack very easily, but I managed even though it was a big mess (read: stubborn).
I made two wraps using about 1/4 cup of the tuna salad on each along with chopped veggies.
I actually was really surprised because the Swiss Chard didn’t taste that bad to me this time. It was actually really mild tasting. Perhaps, I like it better raw when the smell doesn’t over power me as much?
I have experimented on and off with raw food recipes over the past year and I have enjoyed most of them. I find that summer is a great time to experiment with raw food because you don’t have to turn on the stove and the meals are often refreshing and energizing. I tend to crave more uncooked meals in the summer, which is why you have seen lots of those on the blog lately.
Some of my favourite raw & no-bake recipes:
- Frosty No Bake Glo Cakes
- Raw Energy Cookie Bites
- Healthy Halloween Cookie Dough Balls
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
- The Best Chocolate Pudding You Will Ever Taste
- Frozen Chocolate Banana Coconut Bliss
- Crunchy Chia Banana Soft Serve
- Raw Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Gena’s Banana Soft Serve…with a twist!
- Homemade Chocolate Covered Raisins
- Energize Me Creamy Fruit Dip
Tonight’s question- Have you ever experimented with raw food recipes or would you try some out? Did you come across any that you love in particular? Do share! We could all use a little less oven in this heat…or should I say a little less heat in our oven!
Healthy Living Summit charity raffle today until Friday at noon EST!
I am raffling off one HLS ticket for this year’s Healthy Living Summit in Chicago Aug 13-15th! All proceeds go to the Canadian Cancer Society. Donating $10 = 1 ticket entry, donating $20 = 3 ticket entries. I haven’t had that many entries (maybe 10 so far) so your chances of winning aren’t too shabby! Visit my donation page to make your donation: Click here. Thank you and goodluck!
I’m now trying to motivate myself to go on a run after discovering my Shuffle (mp3 player) is broken. It is a sad day. I’m hoping for a miracle. See you tomorrow morning for a fun Friday surprise.
Mmmm, this looks delicious! I have always loved the idea of collard wraps but it’s great to hear it works with swiss chard as well. What else came in the CSA this week? I just bought a half share from Plan B so I get my first deliver next week… I’m so excited!
stay tuned tomorrow!
Bahaha, I’ve put chard in my smoothies before and actually loved it.
Raw food recipes are also something I like during the summer. :) I made a batch of raw macaroons recently but still need to tweak the recipe a bit–they were a little too sweet.
I haven ‘t tried chard yet…your meal looks so good!
I have never experimented with raw recipes but there are certain ones that I could certainly see myself trying. Speaking of which, swiss chard is something I need to try.
Chard is often used instead of grape leaves when making stuffed grape leaves. You can even make it vegan.
http://www.tasteofbeirut.com/2010/06/grape-leaves-stuffed-with-bulgur-and-chick-peas/
I have made lettuce wraps with chard before (I know! A veggie hater like myself!) and I actually LOVED them! Very delish.
My shuffle just flaked out on me recently too — then came back on three days later. It flaked out again, and returned again in another couple of days. The problem? Moisture. I guess my sweat + my shuffle are not good for each other. A good trick is to store the shuffle in dry rice to suck up the moisture – maybe that’ll get it working again?
You might not love to eat it, but you are very good at photographing Swiss Chard. Beautiful!
I’m surprised to discover someone who doesn’t actually like chard! I love the strong flavor of it – to me, it has more “personality” than romaine or spinach. Great idea turning raw leaves into a wrap! If the chard in my garden ever decides to reach maturity, I might have to try that myself!
Yes, Gena is amazing. :D
I LOVE eating raw foods as much as I can–I even have an entire “RAW” category in my blog recipe index! I thnk I have too many favorites to name, but raw sushi, raw berry sorbet, LaRaw Bars (my version of Lara Bars), raw beet salad. . . and so much more! The latest thing I made is a Crazy Simple Kale Salad–raw, of course. I’m just like you–I adore raw kale, collard and chard, but am less impressed when cooked (with chard, anyway–still like kale and collards). Your wraps look beautiful! :)
Angela,
I have to share my favorite swiss chard recipe with you! I make this quite frequently, it is sooo tasty! The recipe makes quite a lot so I usually pack it into individual servings and freeze half.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Curried-Red-Lentil-and-Swiss-Chard-Stew-with-Garbanzo-Beans-233385
YUM this looks so good, right up my alley
I’ve never tried Swiss Chard. Looks like something I should try.
I’m glad you and chard are getting along! Sometimes it isn’t love at first sight, but maybe you will have a more enduring love with chard. I love it, as well as any kind of green. You should try chard wraps with veggies inside and peanut dipping sauce. So good!
The chard looks beautiful! The recipe looks delicious as well. I try to stay at least 75% raw every day but I don’t really venture much out of simple whole fruits, veggies, and green smoothies except for raw sweet treats. I’ve had a few main-dish failures in the past but I’ve been trying to find new exciting things to try out for sure! Just need to find ones that work for me, previous attempts used lots of different oils and vinegars and I’ve realized those aren’t really my thing.
I can’t stand the taste of any of the greens – too bitter. But, I did try the following recipe with swiss chard and it came out surprisingly good – not bitter at all
1/2 bunch of swiss chard, cut the stem out. If you want cut the stem into about 1 inch pieces. Slice the leaves
handful of pine nuts or cashews
handful of raisins
1 garlic clove minced
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Toast the pine nuts over medium heat. Remove from pan. Heat some olive oil in the skillet (it should be pretty hot by this point) and cook the garlic for about 30 seconds. Add the stem with a little bit of water (about 1/2 cup) (I add water, otherwise everything sticks to the bottom of my pan) and cover and cook for 2 minutes. Add the leaves of the chard, cover and cook for 2 minutes. Add the pine nuts and raisins, cover and cook for 2 minutes. Add the vinegar, cover and cook for 1-2 minutes. That’s it, it’s very simple, most of the bitterness cooks out and the raisins make it sweet. That’s the only way I can eat chard or kale.
If you don’t like the stems, just omit that step. I cook the stem since most of the nutrients are there, and they’re so brightly colored (on the rainbow one of course!). I got this recipe from Alicia Silverstone’s book.
thanks for sharing this :)
No problem. I have never liked greens and when I got her cookbook and saw the recipe I decided to give it a try and I’m glad that I did. I have a thyroid problem, and uncooked dark leafy greens can inhibit thyroid function (so I don’t juice them), but I know that they’re so loaded with so many nutrients (Superfood – yeah!) that I wanted to incorporate them in my diet. My mom used to make kale when I was young, and all I can say is yuck! I tried cooking them when I became an adult, and still yuck! When I tried this recipe, I was so surprised that I barely tasted any of the bitterness, and the raisins bring in enough sweet to make it really yummy. The recipe in the cookbook calls for collards, but I’ve used kale and swiss chard and it comes out really yummy either way. I just have to add about 1/2-3/4 cup of water to the pan when I start cooking the greens, or everything burns on the bottom of the pan.
HOLY YUM! I need to try this.
HOORAY! Thank you, my sweet friend, for trying my recipe and for the good words. You know that I feel just the same.
And next time, try stuffing the leaves with my “middle eastern rice” recipe! I make that with chard always, and I love it. You can DEF steam the chard if you want to.
thanks I will have to try that recipe!
Hahaha. I’m sorry, but I look at that and all I can think of is Passover when we wrap haroset (SO yum) or horseradish (my Dad grates it himself – with his face all wrapped up in bandanas like an old time bandit) in romaine lettuce for part of the Seder. We all watch my Dad’s face turn bright red as he stoically chews on, then gulps down an entire glass of water. A few years ago his grandson said “I’m the man!” and his granddaughter retorted “Saba [grandpa] is the MAN!”
I love using swiss chard as a wrap. Usually de-vein mine and then steam it to make it more pliable. One of my favorite ways to enjoy it is filled with raw grated carrots and beets and cooked quinoa. I fold them like little burritos/spring rolls then dip them into a homemade peanut sauce (peanut butter, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ginger, garlic, chili flakes, sesame oil, a touch of honey/agave). Delicious : )
That looks good! I actually love chard just sauteed with olive oil and garlic :-)
Here is my new favorite recipe for Raw Spring Rolls- inspired from Natalia Rose’s Raw Food Detox Diet
Sauce:
¼ c. 100% Pure Maple Syrup
¼ c. Nama Shoyu or Tamari
½ tsp fresh ginger root – pressed or minced
1 med. garlic clove – pressed or minced
Drizzle of toasted sesame oil
Basic Filling:
1 Cup of shredded carrots & broccoli slaw (comes in a bag)
Small handful of fresh basil leaves, whole
Wraps: Cabbage Leaves (large bib Lettuce leaves would also work – or chard! Haha)
Stir together the sauce and add it to your filling – mix well. Spoon on to cabbage leaves, roll up and devour.
Additional ingredient ideas for filling – optional:
Zucchini, julienned
Cucumber noodles (made with a spiralizer)
Mint leaves
Cilantro
Bell pepper, cut in to thin strips
thank you this recipe sounds amazing :)
Oh I have a ton of swiss chard out in my families garden, we could make this for one of our vegetarian nights!!!
Hahaha! Thanks for the laugh!
What a unique way to use the leaves – BRILLIANT I SAY!
YOU MUST TRY THIS CHARD RECIPE!!! I modified a recipe from Clean Eating magazine and the entire family devours it–even my 3 & 7 year old. Mince one shallot and set aside. In a small bowl, mix 2 tbsp organic cider vinegar, 2 tbsp organic honey, 1 tbsp tomato paste (I know you love that!) and crushed red pepper to taste. Heat a large skillet (I use my wok) over medium-high heat and melt 1 tsp coconut oil. Briefly saute shallots until just golden, add chopped chard and saute for 2-3 minutes. Pu vinger/honey mixture in with chard, stir and cover. Cook for about 25 minutes stirring occasionally. I swear, YOU WILL LOVE, LOVE, LOVE CHARD!!
This doesn’t seem like it would make very much food – is it a side dish or main course? Also how much chard do you use? I would like to make it, sounds yummy but I’m confused about the recipe :)
TIA, Kari =)
Sorry for the confusion! I use about 2 – 3 lbs (stems & leaves). I really does make a lot. However, I have it as a side dish. If I was just cooking for myself (like tonight) I will stir fry it with some tofu, mushrooms, and red peppers. Endless add-in possibilities!!
thanks sounds awesome!
My mp3 player stopped at mile 4 of my marathon in June!!! Talk about being bummed. But you know what? It felt good to run without music. I got to hear the people cheering, the birds chirping, dogs barking, kids screaming, the wind in my hair, my breathing and my feet hitting the ground. It felt exhilerating!
Your photos are so beautiful–did you decide to put some of them on Etsy? Sorry if I missed you announcing that.
I am putting them on SmugMug..they will be coming soon! I am just working on the shop :)
This is my favourite chard recipe (not MY recipe, just one I love!). So awesome. Just in case you have more chard to use. :)
http://danamccauley.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/my-affair-with-swiss-chard/
I’m all about the vegan banana soft serve!
I’ve been experimenting with raw foods now since March and absolutely love it. I was always a great vegetarian “cook”, but I couldn’t bake to save my life. Since I’ve been “raw un-baking” some delicious dessert treats, I can’t seem to get enough (even my husband asks for them all the time now!) My most recent success was using our own blueberries and making a Raw, Vegan Blueberry Cobbler from Jennifer Cornbleet’s recipe in her book “Raw Foods for 1 or 2 people”. Needless to say, I’m glad I doubled the recipe by my husband, my mother, and my father are begging for more :)
I agree that it is easier to eat raw in the summer. :) I’ve been eating mostly raw since June, but I’m sure come October, I’ll be ready for some warm vegan comforts :)
wow raw caobbler sounds incredible!
oops cobbler I meant ;p
it seems like this bunch of chard LOOKED a lot more mild…the rainbow chard is what scares me!
That looks so good!
Maybe you had a bitter bit the last time around, and yes, cooking does make it smell strong. I personally like it raw best when it’s still small and tender. It’s much more mild!
My hubby made ‘actual’ tuna salad for his lunch today. I thought hmmm that is something I haven’t had in a while, but it can be so unhealthy. I love your sunflower seed tuna salad. I might have to give that a try over the weekend. Thanks :-D
Keeping my fingers crossed on HLS ticket. I really should have secured a ticket earlier in the game, instead of chancing it.
I eat mostly raw year-round, but I especially love eating raw in the summer! First, because there’s so much amazing seasonal produce, and second, because it’s a lot more fun to whip up food when the oven and stove aren’t increasing the sweltering factor of my kitchen :)
One of my favourite raw dessert recipe books is by Ani Phyo – Ani’s Raw Food Desserts. Most of the recipes are super simple, and more importantly, super delicious. And my all-time favourite non-dessert raw recipe is a simple avocado-kale salad. Yum!
Swiss chard is one of my favorite greens. I am glad you gave it another try ;) Gena is great and has many great recipes. Wrap looks great!
I don’t think I’ve ever had swiss chard! What is wrong with me? *runs to grocery*
Good for you on giving that veg a second chance! I’m not a big fan of chard personally because I find it so bitter. The same goes with Kale. I am getting a blender this Friday so hopefully I can make some green monsters with those greens!
Your wraps look so good! Swiss chard is so incredibly phytonutrient rich. It’s such a dark green. Lovely pictures.
I haven’t tried many raw food recipes or anything, but it definitely intrigues me! I’m a wuss when it comes to greens and have yet to really expand beyond romaine and spinach.
BTW, I think you have some of the most beautiful food pictures of any blog!!
thank you :)
Girl, when you said you were a taurus, I knew EXACTLY where you were coming from. I can very much relate to the stubborness we are known for. Anywho, I’m not a huge fan of swiss chard, either, but maybe that’s because I tried it cooked, too. It seems like most greens are more mild raw. Where do you get your Hermamare? I really want some but it’s almost $10 at the one store I found it at. Any tips?
Have a lovely day!
xox
P.S. Gena’s sunshine burgers are out of this world amazing. If you can, I would recommend trying them as your next raw (or Choosing raw) adventure (she has both raw and cooked versions.)
thanks for the tip!
Costco has the seasoning I think!
HOLY WOW!!!! OMG I am definitely making that soon!!!
Haha you are and Eric crack me up.
I always ask for chard at the veggie juice bar. Not sure why…I just like saying shaaaaaard. I don’t mind the flavor but I think I’m just a lover of all veggie flavors. I’ve been putting kale in my smoothies this week and I love it.
The chard wraps look delicious! I bought the cookbook Raw Food Revolution back in March to try some new recipes for a cleanse, and I really love the Liquid Gold Dressing recipe. It’s an odd flavor combo at first glance, but so good.
Cute post about your relationship with chard.
I’ve found chard to be one of the mildest raw greens to put in smoothies, especially with cacao. I’m not a fan of cooked greens, though.
I love mock tuna! I have a recipe on my blog when I did a Gabriel Cousens trial, and it was strangely addicting! I wrapped it in nori sheets. I definitely want to try Gena’s version! I’m craving it all over again. I’m glad you decided to try it because it got me interested in it again.
im going to put chard in my GM tomorrow!
It’s better with lacinato kale, but works with chard, too. Remove thick stems, roll leaves tightly into a cigar shape and slice into thin ribbons. Toss with the zest and juice of one lemon (or two small ones) and drizzle with olive oil. Cover and let stand at room temperature for an hour. Serve topped with grated pecorino romano cheese, nutritional yeast, or even sesame seeds. So good!
Usually the raw foods that are supposed to taste like something else…like cheese sauce or something else usually don’t taste that great. But I love a good raw salad.
I was definitely not a fan of chard the first time I tried it, either, but it did grow on me. This looks like a great way to use chard, and the tuna salad looks especially delicious! Have you ever tried a garbanzo bean based tuna salad?
No I havent but that sounds interesting!
Swiss chard is one of my favorite vegetables ever! You can do so much with it. I wish I had recipes to share in my blog, but by the time I started, chard season had come and gone. Did you get all green/white chard or did you happen to get any rainbow chard as well? A few ways I enjoy chard: thinly sliced in ribbons as a base for salad (instead of lettuce), finely shredded and sauteed down alongside caramelized onions and roasted garlic on a pizza (SO GOOD!), used as a wrap for all kinds of veggies, tofu, tacos, etc. Enjoy your CSA!
I too find I like chard better raw. One day I was desperate and hungry and wrapped a piece of tofu in some nori, then in a chard leaf and dipped it in a sauce made of Bragg’s, tahini and grated ginger. It was amazing! I was shocked.
I’ve never had chard before, but those wraps look so good I may have to give it a try. Usually I’ll use romaine when I do a lettuce wrap.