Swiss Chard Sauce or Dip

Garden Swiss chard

The Swiss chard in Tom's raised garden bins is prolific and delicious! Our son, Sam, even loves it.  A couple of mornings ago, he asked me to scramble some eggs with Swiss chard, onions, garlic and peppers to put into a wrap for a breakfast burrito of sorts.  I started by sauteing the onions, peppers and garlic and then added the Swiss chard.  As he looked at how much I made, he said he only needed about half of it.  So I saved half of it for me to use in some way.  

That "some way" came today, as I put the Swiss Chard mixture with canned Great Northern Beans into the Magic Bullet to make a dip to spread on crackers.  Then later, I thinned it with some of the reserved liquid from the beans, and warmed it up with a small amount of pasta and topped it with reduced-fat feta cheese.  I savored it both ways. 

Whenever I cook Swiss chard, I am amazed at how the large quantity of it raw shrinks down to the tiny amount in the pan.  When I made it for Sam's burrito, I think it was a bit more than four cups of chopped chard, though I didn't measure it exactly, and then I saved half of the finished product for my creation today.  So the list of ingredients below is more of an approximation than an exact recipe.  Next time, I will cook a large quantity of this to use in a variety of ways.  Have fun making your own Pzazzed version!


Ingredients:
2 cups chopped Swiss Chard
2 Tablespoons chopped red onion
2 Tablespoons diced green pepper
1/2 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon coconut oil
1/4 cup cooked, drained Great Northern Beans  (but save some liquid)

Preparation:
Saute the onion, green pepper, and garlic in the coconut oil on medium heat until tender.  Add the Swiss chard with a bit of salt and pepper and saute until tender. You will have about 1/4  - 1/3 cup of the mixture when the chard cooks down.  Put this mixture with the Great Northern Beans in a Magic Bullet or similar device. Puree to desired consistency.  You might need to add just a bit of the reserved liquid from the beans to get the Magic Bullet to do its job and to get the desired consistency.  




Nutrition per serving:
Servings per recipe: 1
Serving Size: About 1/2 cup      
Calories: 121
Total Fat: 5 g
Cholesterol:  0 mg
Sodium: 261 mg
Total Carbs: 15 g
Dietary Fiber: 6 g
Protein: 6 g

Kale Sweet Potato Hash Soup

I have a recipe for a scrumptious kale-sweet potato hash that my family thoroughly enjoys.  So today I decided to turn it into a soup.  But I wanted to make it quick and easy, so modified it by using onion powder, garlic powder, and jarred roasted red peppers rather than taking the time to saute onions, garlic and red peppers.  Even with these shortcuts, the soup was delicious.  And it fulfilled my daily quota of one vegetable from the brassica rapa family (kale), as well as healthy sweet potatoes.  It was the leftover sweet potatoes I had from another day that originally inspired me to try this today.  


It also used a bit of the abundant kale from Tom's raised garden beds.  Wow!  Look at all of that kale!  Summer Pzazz for sure!  I have been using much of it to make my other favorite summer kale recipes, including:  
Mudslide 
Kale Coconut Water Drink
Kale Power Drink

Kale 

Adding the sweet potatoes to the sauteed kale

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon coconut oil
2 cups chopped kale
1/3 chicken broth
2 Tablespoons roasted red peppers
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cooked cubed sweet potatoes

Preparation:
Heat the coconut oil over medium heat and add the chopped kale.  Saute briefly, till it wilts.  Add the chicken broth, roasted red peppers, and seasonings and cook until the kale is soft.  Add the sweet potatoes and put it into a Magic Bullet or similar device and puree to desired consistency. I added a bit more chicken broth to make it thinner. The garnish of Greek yogurt and chili powder worked well.

Nutrition:
Servings per recipe: 1
Serving Size: About 3/4  cup
Calories: 191
Total Fat:  6 g
Cholesterol: 1 mg
Sodium:  398 mg
Total Carbs:  33 g
Dietary Fiber:  7 g
Protein:  7 g