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 :-)