Swiss Chard Pasta Recipe. Variations

Swiss Chard Pasta

We make a lot of noise about kale, and rightly so. Kale is indeed good and good for you. But Swiss chard is what we grew up with. Don’t get me wrong: I love kale and use it every chance I get. I just wish we would give Swiss chard equal time! Every bit as versatile as kale, and just widely available. Swiss chard ribs are much less tough than kale ribs, which means they can be eaten raw.

Swiss Chard leaves are quite sturdy

This means that a swiss-chard based salad won’t wilt so fast, and so you can make a larger batch and eat it on the next too: It will be just as crunchy and bright.

There’s nothing I don’t do with Swiss Chard!

I just love its vibrant colors and briny mineral flavors. Being super nutritious never hurts either! A huge Sephardi favorite!

On low carb days, use the giant leaves to make wraps!
On salad days, cut the ribs and leaves into ribbons and throw in beets, apples, celery.
On Tajine days,use it to make a fish dish, a vegetarian dish, a chicken dish. 
And these are just a few examples. Just search swiss chard on my blog, you will be very pleased!

Swiss Chard Pasta Recipe: New flavors!

This dish is a perfect excuse for introducing new, exciting flavors for pennies: Very high quality Gluten-Free Pasta (a little goes a long way), Kelp and Kaffir. These seasonings make vegetarian dishes so deep you will never miss the meat or fish flavors. This added advantage affords you more fun delicious nourishing vegetarian dishes with complete nutrition.
It’s all there: high fiber, low carbs, high protein, fantastic flavors. Everything we want dinner to be!

Before I dig in:

Let me just preempt your potential questions. What if I don’t have kelp, or keffir, or gluten-free pasta, or if I am missing one of them?  The answer is: No problem at all. Just order them for next time, they are a fantastic and very economic investment. You will thank me

Explore Cuisine Pasta

I’m loving this brand Pasta: They are the reason I am eating more pasta these days, without any guilt. Explore Cuisine Pasta has much higher protein and much higher fiber than regular wheat pasta, and much lower carbs, and just as delicious. It is also gluten-free, so it is a win-win!

Explore (haha) with their different grains and shapes. I love this edamame spaghetti, because it is the one I get away with most often with traditional pasta lovers: the closest in color and shape. But there’s a lot more exciting shapes and grains in their line! I even make my spaghetti and meatballs to diehard pasta lovers. And they ask for seconds! I urge you to Check it out.

Kelp

It’s pretty amazing the amount of depth of umami flavor kelp delivers.
Kelp is also called kombu, a wonderful seaweed that adds not only a deep layer of  flavor but a great nutritional boost, at a negligible caloric cost, as algae is so rich in minerals.  Ground kelp is very easy to use and very inexpensive. Please ignore all those dreadful powders and bouillons: they were ostensibly created to add flavor to your beautiful dishes, but instead they drive them to the ground. Instead, add a generous sprinkle of kelp to your soups, pastas and other dishes!

Kaffir

I know, right? It looks enormously like a lime, with thick shriveled looking skin. Both the skin and leaves have enormous fragrance and flavor, very reminiscent of Etrog. Kaffir leaves are extremely aromatic, and are widely used in Indian cooking. Fresh kaffir, fruit and leaves, can be hard to find, and expensive. Solution: Ground Kaffir!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 6 large loves garlic
• 1 large red onion
• 1 large bunch flat parsley
• 6 sprigs cilantro, all tough stems removed
• 2 tablespoons kelp
• 2 good pinches saffron
• 1 tablespoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground keffir
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1 large bunch Swiss chard (I love the red chard, or the rainbow chard), leaves and ribs, sliced in thin ribbons.
• 8-ounce box Explore Cuisine Edamame pasta (of course you can also use regular pasta). cooked according to instructions on the box. 1/2 cup cooking liquid reserved, drained.

Instructions