What to do with: Swiss Chard

Swiss chard is one of those items in a CSA box that you are not always excited to see. The ratio of 'appearances in CSA box' to 'recipes for swiss chard' is kind of skewed to one side...

Normally - we just chop up some onion, chop up the stems, saute with some garlic and olive oil, then add the chopped leaves and a wee bit of acid (pomegranate vinegar is good, here!) or pine nuts & raisins. That gets old fast. And the chard often still ends up being too bitter for my tastes.

Last night I felt very French, because I literally whipped up a gratin in about a half hour. It is easy - I swear! Here's the recipe:

One bunch of chard
One medium onion
1 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup cream

Preheat oven to 400

Cut chard leaves from stems.
Roughly chop leaves, dice stems.
Dice onion.
Saute onion and stems in olive oil until soft - about 8 min.
Add s&p
Then add leaves until wilted (don't overdo it, since they are going in the oven).

While that is happening, make your bechamel and bread crumbs.

Bechamel:
Melt 2-3 tbsp butter on the stove.
While butter is melting - warm broth in microwave for 1.5 minutes.
Remove broth from micro, and add the cream - do not reheat - just let it sit.
Add 2-3 tbsp flour to melted butter.
Whisk.
Let cook a little bit, but don't let it get too brown.
Add broth/cream to butter/flour and whisk.
Let simmer a little until thick.
Add salt, pepper, and fresh grating of nutmeg

In a gratin dish, put the cooked chard, then pour the bechamel over it.
(You can top the chard with shredded cheese if you like! A Swiss-type is good, as is parmesan)

Bread crumbs:
In a bowl combine bread crumbs (I keep bread crumbs made from leftover bread ends in the freezer for times like this. Nigella trick ;)), chopped parsley & thyme, 1 clove of minced garlic, swirl of olive oil to combine

Put the bread crumbs on top and throw the gratin in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Ok - writing this all down makes it seem more labor intensive than it was. But I assure you it wasn't!