Swiss Chard with Raisins & Pine Nuts

FOODBUZZ

Colourful vegetables make lovely accompaniments to most meat based main courses, especially the duller coloured ones like casseroles, roast meat and steaks which look far more attractive with the addition of a splash of colour somewhere on the plate.

You'll not find many vegetables as colourful as the multi coloured stems of Swiss chard. As well as the white stemmed chard, other varieties produce stems in shades of yellow, orange, red and pink. If you look at chard plants growing in the vegetable plot on a sunny day the stems appear almost irridescent - absolutely beautiful!

When you cook with chard, it's best to think of it as two different vegetables and separate the leafy part from the slightly crunchy stems. Although the leaves have a coarser texture than spinach they behave in a similar way by wilting when cooked and require a far shorter cooking time than the stems.

As chard has quite an earthy taste, I like to add flavour to it whilst it is cooking, so, in this recipe the stems are first braised in lemon and garlic. The raisins and toasted pine nuts add to the textural variety in the dish as well as adding a little sweetnes and crunch which complements the chard perfectly.

I've selected to use only white and yellow stems in this dish, simply because the leaves on my red stemmed plants are a dark burgundy colour and I wanted to keep it looking fresh and vibrant. However, feel free to use the chard with green leaves and red or pink stems if you've got them available.

Swiss Chard with Raisins & Pine Nuts

Serves 4

Ingredients

450g Swiss Chard

2 Cloves of Garlic, crushed

1 Lemon, juice & zest

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

3 Tbsp Water

30g Raisins

30g Pine Nuts, lightly toasted

Sea Salt & Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Separate the chard leaves from the stems and then cut the stems into batons and coarsely shred the leaves.

Add the lemon juice and zest, crushed garlic and water to a shallow pan. Bring up to the boil and the add the chard stems. Cover and simmer gently for 15-20 minutes or until the stems are tender. Check everynow and again and add a little more water if it looks too dry.

Add the shredded leaves and raisins, replace the lid and continue cooking until the leaves have wilted.

Season to taste with the salt and pepper. Spoon into a serving dish and scatter with the toasted pine nuts.

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