Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Chickpea Saute with Swiss Chard and Greek Yogurt



Those of you lucky enough to have seen my Facebook feed the other day (or unlucky, if you get bugged by constant status updates involving food porn) saw this delicious looking veggie type dish that I had made for lunch.  I found the recipe in Yotam Ottolenghi's amazingly gorgeous cookbook, Plenty.  This book is a fantastic collection of Mediterranean-ish recipes that just happen to be vegetarian.  My copy has plenty of drool marks as the photos just inspire such a salivatory response.

The notes in the recipe suggest that if Swiss chard is not available, you can use a combination of arugula and spinach.  But right now, there is plenty of chard around. Just make this one soon. I'm telling you, I wanted very much to lick the bowl when I was done. It was that good.

Ingredients:

3/4 lb Swiss chard
1/3 c olive oil (I used 1/4 cup to no ill effect)
4 medium carrots, diced
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 1/2 c cooked chickpeas (yup, the can will do nicely here..just drain and rinse)
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tbsp chopped mint
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper
1/2 c Greek yogurt
1 tbsp olive oil

Directions:

Separate the stalks from the Swiss chard leaves.  Blanch the stalks in lots of salted boiling water for 3 minutes.  Add the leaves and continue cooking for another 2 minutes.  Drain everything, rinse under cold water and squeeze dry.  Chop roughly.

Heat a large skillet with olive oil and saute carrots and caraway seeds for 5 minutes over medium heat.  Add the chard and chickpeas and cook for 6 minutes more.  Add the garlic, herbs, lemon juice and salt and pepper.  Remove from heat and check seasonings.

Just before serving, mix the yogurt, olive oil and some salt and pepper.  Put the veggies in a bowl and spoon the yogurt over.  If you want to get fancy in the presentation, sprinkle it with more pepper and a few drops of olive oil.

Enjoy.