Chard season is on and I know you sometimes have a hard time finding cool recipes to cook them. If we have more inspiration for cooking chard leaves (use similar to that of spinach) , ribs are less … popular. 😉
I have already suggested a recipe for chard ribs au gratin on the blog, a fairly “classic” way of cooking them. Today, I suggest you make it into similis chard rib spaghetti that you can serve with a tomato sauce with vegetables to die for (or other sauce of your choice for that matter) . A good way to get the most reluctant to eat chard chops. On our side, we fell for this recipe. I even bought some chard to redo it is to say!
For the record, the day I made this recipe, I wanted to eat spaghetti with tomato sauce . Problem: no more spaghetti in my cupboards ! I then thought of vegetable spaghetti, I had already done it with zucchini . Even if it has nothing to do with pasta (we agree) , in spaghetti with tomato sauce: the sauce still does half the job. 😉 So I didn’t have to give up my desire completely.
The amount of chard ribs will depend on how you eat them: with or without starch, as a side dish or as a main course. For my part, I ate this dish with two nice slices of homemade sourdough bread and had used about 4-6 Swiss chard chops. You can also add lentils to your tomato sauce to make this dish more “complete” or serve them with a little rice.
You will need:
- +500 g to 1 kg of chard
- +400 g of peeled tomato
- +1/2 eggplant
- +2 cloves garlic
- +1 onion
- +Olive oil
- +Salt pepper
- +Basil, Thyme, Rosemary
Step by step method
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For the chard spaghetti:
Step 1 :
Separate the leaves from the chard chops. Reserve the leaves for another use. Wash and cut the chard ribs into threads, like spaghetti. Cook them in a large volume of salted boiling water for 5 to 10 minutes depending on their thickness.
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For the tomato sauce:
Step 1 :
Meanwhile, prepare the tomato sauce. Peel and finely chop the garlic and onion. Cut the eggplant into thin slices (I am using a mandolin).
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2nd step :
In a saucepan, pour a drizzle of olive oil and brown the garlic and onion with a pinch of salt. Add the eggplant. Season with salt and pepper. Once the eggplants are a little grilled, add the peeled tomatoes and aromatic herbs. Mash everything using a potato masher and simmer for just a few minutes over very low heat. Adjust the seasoning with salt and salt.
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For the rest of the recipe:
Drain the chard. Serve them as a main course or as a side dish with tomato sauce.