Quick and Healthy – Sautéed Rainbow Chard with Sumac

I’m trying to make the most of my January resolution to eat a little healthier. In addition to my staples, of steamed broccoli and kale, I’ve been taking the time to browse the market for new contenders. 

This week I came across mountains of brightly coloured rainbow chard. With its fabulous leaves of burnt yellow, fluorescent orange, deep green, and burgundy, I snapped it up. Surely it will make me healthier. Gosh I felt energised just looking at it.

In an effort to keep my taste buds interested in my resolution, I’ve spending some time perusing blogs focused on simple healthy foods, such as Scandie Foodie (also known as seriously healthy - no dairy, no sugar), for inspiration. My feeling is that Scandi Foodie would probably insert my bunch of rainbow chard directly into her juicer. Although I love vegetable juices, and am totally sold on their health benefits, I really don’t enjoy cleaning the juicer. I actually avoid it at all costs. The resulting odour leads to a certain level of domestic discontent, so the juicer tends to live a quiet life in the cupboard.  

The next healthiest way to eat chard is probably raw. And while I’m keen to increase the proportion of raw foods in my diet this January, it’ freezing here. So a hot lunch was in order. As such I decided to sauté the chard with smoked garlic, shallots and sumac. At the last minute I added some chilli pickle for an extra kick – both because chilli is said to speed up one’s metabolism, and because I love the flavour.

This dish is incredibly simple to make. The whole process from fridge to plate took less than ten minutes. It makes a tasty midweek lunch, and would also make an impressive colourful side dish.      

I hope you like it! Here’s the recipe.

 Recipe

Olive oil

2 loves Smoked garlic (minced)

2 Shallots (chopped)

Sumac (2 tea spoons)

Bunch of chopped rainbow chard

Chilli Pickle (to taste – I used 2 tea spoons)

 

Step 1: Chop the chard. Keep the stalks and the leaves separate. 

Step 2: In a pan, heat a glug of oil, the minced garlic and the finely chopped shallots. Once these are fragrant add the chard stalks.

Step 3: Once the stalks are tender, add the sumac and then the chard leaves. Add the chilli pickle and sauté for two minutes.   

Step 4: Et voila! Enjoy

Any other suggestions on ways to prepare chard? There’s plenty available at the moment and it seems to be almost always organic.