Rainbow Chard & Sweet Cherry Pepper Croquettes ((Your tastebuds won’t believe this is super healthy))
Before I even start to tell you about this recipe, I want to thank you for at least clicking on this post. I mean really – rainbow chard is not an ingredient that makes your mouth water at the sound of its name! (haha) And, I have to admit, sometimes chard can naturally be pretty bitter. BUT – not this time! I have figured out the perfect way to cook with it & am so excited to share my ‘discovery’ with you!
In the past, I have parboiled my chard leaves and stuffed them with delicious fillings, you can read about my Chard Rolls and Pasta-less Lasagna Rolls by clicking on the links embedded in these recipe titles. The recipes are tasty and will be on repeat stays for our menu because I love the mildly bitter flavor that is inherent to dark leafy greens.
It would be nice to incorporate chard & keep it’s leafy flavor a whisper instead of a scream. Enter Chard Croquettes!
I have to detour for a moment. WOW!! I mean WOW!!! I have a bounty of chard this year! It is gorgeous, really show-stoppingly beautiful in my front gardens. A few days ago, my builder and some subcontractors came to the house to work on a few repairs & these burly men wanted to know what ‘these plants’ were. They were not totally clueless, because I made them guess and they guessed rhubarb! Great guess, rainbow chard & rhubarb look similar – I was impressed!
When I told him it was rainbow chard, my builder was shocked to find out I grow it and actually eat it – really, shocked. He went on to say just how beautiful it was in my landscaping. I felt a bit of satisfaction, knowing I am doing something with my gardens totally different from anything he has ever seen. I love bringing edible ornamentals into the flower beds!
Now back to our regularly scheduled program: the trick to removing the bitterness from chard…is…steaming it! Here are the specifics:
- Remove the entire rib from each chard leaf
- Rinse the leaves off under cold running water
- Place the rinsed leaves in a salad spinner and spin them silly
- Steam the chard on the stove top for 8 minutes or so
- Remove the steamed chard from the steamer & allow it to cool for 10 minutes
- Squeeze all of the remaining water out of the chard – for about 1 pound of chard, I extracted over 1 cup of water
- Once all the drips of water are gone, finely chop the chard
- the end
There you have it, the secret to tasty chard is steaming it!
I got the idea for these rainbow chard croquettes from Whole Foods (WF’s). A few weeks ago, I was shopping and the deli at WF’s was giving out tasty samples of spinach croquettes. I asked what the binder in the croquettes was (sneaking info for later duplication & use haha!!) — for all she knew I had a food allergy, which BTW I don’t and didn’t insinuate… Even still, she blurted out the entire ingredient list!! BONUS! As a thank you & because they tasted so darn good, I purchased 4.
I hope you will give this recipe a whirl, I think you’ll be surprised and have cause to feel good about yourself. You chose healthy, you chose homemade – good job! Oh, and you are good enough, you are smart enough & doggone it, people like you!
Are you wondering what I have dolloped on top of these beauties?? Braum’s Jalapeño Dip! ((yum.)) Sour Cream, a homemade spicy dip or salsa would also be a perfect partner to the croquettes. Truth is, they are excellent all by themselves.