Help Me Cook Dinner?

[jesse_the_k]

So, I've got a lot of nice chard, a little lacinato kale, plus standard pantry vegetables.

I'm celiac, so my starches trends away from standard pasta and more to quinoa or amaranth or rice noodles. No cheese because we can't achieve bipartisan dairy in this house.

Then I've got a fridge full of tasty carnivorous protein units, which can stand on their own.

How could I layer the chard with some starch? What sort of sauce might be doable?

Comments

[zizi_west]

Chard is one of my favorite things on earth. If only I chad better luck at growing it, I'd try to eat it year-round.

I don't usually follow any standard recipe; I cut it into manageable pieces (either sliced into squares or cut into long pasta-like ribbons with scissors), then stir-fry with onions, garlic, and a bit of soy sauce / shoyu (reduced sodium version if available). Sometimes I add a small amount of ginger (chopped fine if fresh, powdered otherwise) and water.

Before I used up my current jar of Marmite I'd mix a little dab in water and stir it in just before turning off the heat. Some people hate Marmite or have to avoid yeast but if neither applies, I think it adds a nice savory flavor.

For a starch: usually rice or couscous -- though if I understand correctly, semolina is not OK for a person following a celiac disease diet?

A friend of mine once made stir-fried chard with raisins, sliced almonds, and what may have been allspice. I have to admit that I wasn't too fond of this particular combination. Chard=savory for me.

[jumpuphigh]

A friend of mine once made stir-fried chard with raisins, sliced almonds, and what may have been allspice. I have to admit that I wasn't too fond of this particular combination. Chard=savory for me.

I make chard with cut up dates and pecans. It definitely takes it in a different direction taste-wise.

[jesse_the_k]

That is an intriguing direction. I have come to love chard more as my palate ages: give me the bitter! On the other hand, I made a chicken curry sort of goodness with lots of individual curry spices (I can't handle turmeric or cayenne) and nectarine slices, which was quite sumptuous.

When you're cooking the cut-up dates, is there a goodly bit of juices in the pan? I would imagine dates could stick to the pan.

Thanks so much for your contribution!

[jumpuphigh]

I cook down the chard and then add the dates and pecans right before taking it out of the pan so there are juices and the dates and pecans are just in long enough to heat up.

[capri0mni]

Kale is fantabulous with potatoes; so I would choose those for starch layering, if you're bored with your usual starches (they can also add a soft creamy binding that might stand in for the missing cheese).

And zizi_west's recipe for chard has my mouth watering, here -- though I'd up the ginger to higher levels. But that's because I'm as much a ginger-holic as I am a chocoholic. And that's saying something

[zizi_west]

Yum! I've never tried it with potatoes, but I bet it would be delicious with a combo of either mashed potatoes + sweet potatoes or mashed carrot + mashed potatoes!

I never get tired of ginger either, but usually cook chardwith/for other people & sadly not everyone has equal ginger enthusiasm, so I don't use the large amounts I'd like. I think that the smell of fresh sliced ginger in a kitchen is simply intoxicating.

[jesse_the_k]

And I'm dividing the range and thinking mashed carrots, mashed yams, and mashed beets. (All mashed with ginger, of course.) Think of how pretty it would be! Layer the mash with the chard, sprinkled diced raw onions all over. Add some lemon/orange juice to prevent dryness, and bake at 300° for 20 minutes.

Thanks for your suggestions. It's clear that the way to get a lot of comments in one's DreamWidth is to ask a focussed question about which many people have experiences.

[stultiloquentia]

Here's my new favourite quinoa recipe. You can swap out the asparagus for just about anything. Kale and chard work beautifully.

[jadelennox]

saute the chard with olive oil and very carmelized garlic. Lots of it. Put of quinoa, preferabbly cooked in broth or stock, with some chopped tomatoes thrown in late.

[wintercreek]

Seconding this! It's what I'd do, with the possible addition of onions and carrots sauteed with the chard. For bonus protein, you can make depressions in the chard, break an egg into each one, and cover to let the eggs poach (if that's the right verb) in the chard beds. Yum!

[pantryslut]

Deborah Madison has a lovely and easy recipe that involves tossing sauteed chard with brown rice and eggs. It's really tasty and filling too. The original includes Parmesan too but it's easy to omit.

[antarcticlust]

Have you ever tried zucchini ribbon "pasta?"

[jesse_the_k]

Huh. Nope. I'm finally back from the north woods, and near a net connection to find a recipe. That's intriguing (although exceptionally slippery). We once hosted a Pi Day celebration with an all-pie menu. Somewhere I found a quiche-like custard with a crust composed of zucchini and carrot slices, which worked quite well.

The Bionaturae GF pasta is so good that even civilians eat it without comment.