SF Bay Guardian article

[Guest guest]

the monthly meatless article in the SF Bay Guardian

morningstar is pretty nasty, and not vegan..but..hey...canniloni beans are my

faves

and i've got chard coming out of me ears...

 

http://www.sfbg.com/39/13/x_meatless.html

 

MeatlessBy Miriam Wolf

 

Chard times

 

HEY! NEW Year's Day is almost here, and we haven't had our annual secret

vegetarian cabal meeting yet. We need to have a big get-together and decide how

best to convince our favorite carnivorous friends and colleagues to put " give up

meat " – for a day, a week, a month, or even the rest of their lives – on

their New Year's resolutions list. Should we wheedle, threaten, argue, or act

concerned? Should we use charts and graphs, Fast Food Nation, or the Meatrix

(www.themeatrix.com – Moopheus sez check it out)?

 

In the meantime, what should we resolve, those of us who are already meat free?

 

Vegetarians can resolve to become vegan.

 

Vegans can resolve to become raw foodists.

 

Raw foodists can resolve to become fruitarians. My partner, Seth, thinks

everyone should become a fruitarian (even though he isn't one). Lying in bed one

recent night, he compared eating a carrot to tearing down the rainforest.

 

Still, it's the dead of winter now and, despite all the lovely oranges and

tangerines around, our Community Supported Agriculture box is telling us it

definitely isn't fruitarian season. What it is, is chard season. I unpacked last

week's box and found spinach, onions, lettuce, tangerines, beets, chard, and

chard. Counting the bunch of chard we'd bought at the farmers market the

previous weekend and the beet tops, which are just chard in disguise, we had

four bunches of red chard. " Did you trade away my turnips for more chard? " I

asked Seth. He had indeed. I'd been looking forward to having turnips the next

day for lunch. Although it's hard to convince everyone that this is true,

there's nothing like fresh, thinly sliced turnips (or radishes) layered on a

baguette, drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with salt and pepper.

 

Happily, we all like chard. It's mild like spinach without that metallic

aftertaste spinach sometimes has. It's packed with nutrition, and it cooks in

half the time of, say, collards. Another interesting thing about chard is

pondering the fact that the French eat the stems and throw away the leaves,

while we eat the leaves and throw away the stems (unless we're saving them for

stock; see last month's column). With a couple of pantry staples, chard can be

turned into a tasty, protein-intensive dish.

 

In the first variation, fresh organic chard that's grown locally on a small farm

is introduced to an imitation meat product made by a huge multinational

corporation that environmentalists have charged with a number of crimes against

nature.

 

Chard with vegetarian bacon

 

1 large bunch of red chard

 

6 strips of Morningstar Farms vegetarian bacon

 

canola and olive oil

 

salt and pepper to taste

 

Wash the chard; trim the stems by folding the two sides of the leaves together

and slicing off the stem on a close diagonal cut. Dry the chard, stack the

leaves, and then slice them into <-inch strips.

 

In a large skillet, fry the bacon over medium heat in a tablespoon of canola or

similar unflavored oil. Use a bit more oil than you would normally use for

frying the bacon because you want some oil left in the pan to cook and flavor

the greens. Avoid overcooking the bacon.

 

Remove bacon when it's done, letting the oil drip back into the pan. Place bacon

aside to cool.

 

Raise the temperature slightly, add a little olive oil if the pan looks dry, and

then add the chard.

 

While the chard is cooking, chop the bacon into coarse chunks, about a 1/2 inch

wide.

 

When the chard is tender but still bright green, add the bacon and cook for a

minute longer to warm the bacon. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

 

For a more elegant, less fake-meaty take on chard, try this:

 

Chard with white beans

 

1 15-oz can or 2 cups of cooked white beans (cannellini or other large white

beans work nicely in this dish)

 

1 bunch chard

 

2 Tbs olive oil

 

1/2 tsp dried thyme

 

1/2 tsp dried coriander

 

1/2 tsp dried sage

 

salt and pepper to taste

 

lemon juice

 

If using canned beans, drain and rinse them.

 

Wash the chard; trim the stems by folding the two sides of the leaves together

and slicing off the stem on a close diagonal cut. Dry the chard, stack the

leaves, and then slice them into <-inch strips.

 

Warm the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. When it's hot, add the white

beans and sauté until they're covered in oil. Sprinkle the dried spices and

salt and pepper over the beans and stir to coat.

 

Add the chard to the pan but don't stir it. Cook for three minutes or so, until

the chard wilts and the beans start to develop a crust. Then carefully insert a

spatula and turn over the bean-chard mixture in sections so the beans end up on

top and the chard ends up on the bottom. Cook for a minute or two more, until

the chard is tender but still bright green. Drizzle with good olive oil and

lemon juice, if desired