One of the plants that is doing really well in my garden already is Swiss Chard.  This is a new plant for me.  I had a coupon for buy-one-get-one seeds so I grabbed a packet of Swiss Chard.  It’s a lovely plant, with such beautiful color.  I love the red and yellow stems.  I’m learning ways to use it.  I found a recipe online for a simple mix of Chard, tomatoes, garlic and chickpeas.  Here is my jazzed up version.

I used foraged wild onion in place of garlic.  We have a huge patch of wild onion growing by our pool that my husband doesn’t like looking at.  It had gotten super tall and with the rain we had the last few days, it popped right out of the ground with a good yank.  I cleaned off the dirt and outer layer of the bulbs, trimmed back the greens and wah-lah… garlic substitute, straight from the yard.  I also used a few of the better looking green pieces for my green onions.

Enjoy!

Spicy Swiss Chard with Chickpeas

Ingredients

• 1 T olive oil
• 5 small cloves garlic or wild onion, minced         
• 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1 bunch of chard, de-stemmed and roughly chopped
• handful of basil leaves, chopped                             
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• red pepper flakes, to taste
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Parmesan, grated

Instructions

1. Saute the garlic/wild onion in the olive oil for a few minutes, until it becomes fragrant.
2. Add the tomatoes and cook until it begins to bubble.
3. Add the Swiss Chard, basil and green onions and stir to combine.  
4. Cook until it wilts.                                 
5. Add the chickpeas and cook until heated through.  Season with salt and pepper and red pepper flakes.                                
6. Serve with grated Parmesan on top.