Surprisingly Interesting Chard Pasta

A recipe by Kim Leysen (Mme Zsazsa), Belgium

About Kim Leysen (Mme Zsazsa)

Kim Leysen has been blogging for more than ten years under her alter ego Mme Zsazsa. She writes and draws for newspapers and magazines for a living. But rather than sitting inside all day, she prefers getting her hands dirty in the vegetable garden while she muses about the food that will be on the table in the evening for her husband and children. In 2017, she wrote her first cookbook, a bundle of her tastiest vegetarian recipes.

What inspires you to eat less meat?

I don’t want to preach: we all have our preferences when it comes to food. I don’t eat meat anymore because I simply cannot reconcile myself with the ecological impact of the meat industry and the way animals are treated.

Over the years, I began preparing meat much less often. I have had a large vegetable garden for years where almost all ingredients for dinner can be harvested and I find this self-sufficiency terrific.

So instead of preaching about what’s on everyone’s plate, I’d rather inspire people by showing them delicious dishes.

Surprisingly Interesting Chard Pasta
Serves 4
Preparation and cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

6 to 8 stalks of coloured chard, separate leaves from stalk, dice the stalks into 1 cm cubes, the leaves into fine strips
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp cumin seed
chili flakes
handful of raisins
handful of walnuts, chopped
400g of spaghetti
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp walnut or hazelnut oil
Olive oil
Pepper and salt

Method

1. Heat a large pot of salted water to cook the pasta while you fry the chard stalks.

2. Put a pan with some olive oil on low heat and fry the garlic with the cumin seeds, chili flakes, raisins and walnuts. When everything starts to smell good, the chard stalks can be added. Raise the heat a bit and stir regularly so that nothing burns. When the stalks are almost soft, the leaves may be added. Keep stirring until everything is done. Season well with pepper and salt.

3. Drain the pasta and mix under the chard. Stir the walnut oil and sesame oil through the pasta.

Want a tasty side dish? Try sweet and sour cucumbers!

In a bowl, stir together 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 4 tablespoons of apple vinegar, 2 teaspoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt and black pepper. Cut 2 to 3 cucumbers into thin slices, also chop some chives and stir everything into the vinaigrette. Cover and put in the refrigerator for at least half an hour. Also tasty with thin green pepper strips.

Tip!
Add some extra spice with fresh chili peppers.

A special note from Mme Zsazsa to all the vegetable gardeners out there:

Chard is the most grateful, beautiful and longest living vegetable in the vegetable garden. But it can take a while before it is welcomed into the kitchen. Certainly people who do not appreciate beetroot will not immediately be a fan of the red chard. In this case, try another colour: they have a much less pronounced taste.

Use young chard like spinach. As soon as the plants are larger, you usually use the leaves and stems separately, because the stems need more cooking time than the leaves. You can sow chard from mid-March to the end of August. Although you can continue to eat from the chard that you sow in March until the spring thereafter, it is still worthwhile to continue sowing, so that you always have a supply of small leaves in the garden.

For more about Kim Leysen, follow and connect with her on:
Blog: http://madamezsazsa.blogspot.be/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mmezsazsa/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MmeZsazsa/