Week 19: Colorful Food and Colorful Conversation

Did the vibrant Rainbow Chard influence the dinner conversation? I can’t be sure, but sharing this week’s recipe experience with Kara’s inlaws was a blast and certainly colorful!

Over a period of two hours, the range and nature of topics we discussed were as colorful as the ingredients in the meal; inspiring Robin (Kara’s mother in law) to come up with “colorful food, colorful conversation” as the focus of today’s post.

Here’s a list of the topics I recall:

• Trump (of course)
• Divorce and divorce attorneys
• The Cape
• Types of Marijuana
• Healing properties of CBD oil
• Questionable safety of responding to craigslist ads in person
• Badminton, which I learned is how a very fast Worcester accent pronounces “Batman”
• Bicycling
• Baby delivery
• Crack pipes and the potential dangers of being a landlord
• Dentists and their fancy cars
• Hot sauce
• Tofu swordfish
• Burning Man
• Camping
• Sunsets
• Hallucinogenic mushrooms
• Full moon parties in Tortola BVI

As my mom always said, “a good dinner party is not contingent primarily on the food, but more on the engaging conversation.”
Last night we enjoyed both!

Original Recipe

Swiss Chard and Potatoes

The Process:

I selected this recipe knowing I was going to prepare the meal with Robin. Ron and Robin, Kara’s in-laws are vegans.
I really admire the choices they are making and the research involved. Did you know that thereare often animal products in wine, or that sugar is not vegan?

The original recipe is not unhealthy, especially if you are using organic chard and potatoes. But because the recipe would be converted to vegan, eliminating butter, I wanted to add a subtle new flavor, which was achieved with toasted hazelnuts.
I opted for rainbow chard because it’s so beautiful, but I’m not sure if that changed the flavor at all. The original recipe calls for peeled white potatoes. How much more nutrition is added by leaving the skin on or by adding potato variety is questionable… but it just seems healthier to me.

Full disclosure, I don’t recall eating this Swiss Chard dish. In fact, as a kid, I’d have been unable to distinguish Swiss Chard from a house plant, and most of the vegetables we consumed at home were frozen.
I’m beginning to think my mom didn’t like vegetables at all because most of the recipes are covered with cream, cheese, butter or something else to mask the flavor.

The result of the recipe conversion was really delicious, BUT you will have to like chard because the flavor is that of a healthy leafy green.

Rainbow Chard and Potatoes with Hazelnuts

Ingredients:

2 Bunches rainbow chard
3/4 to 1 Pound  small rainbow potatoes
1/4 – 1/2  Cup of raw hazelnuts
1/4 Cup olive oil
2 Cloves garlic
Salt and Pepper to taste

NOTE: the photos represent this recipe doubled

Directions:
Thoroughly wash chard. Remove the stems and chop the leaves into 2 -3 inch pieces.
Place in a pot with just a couple of inches of water.

In a large pot or stockpot bring approximately 4 quarts of water to a boil.

Wash and cut potatoes in halves and quarters. Place in the pot of boiling water and cook for approximately seven minutes until tender.Drain.

While the potatoes are cooking:
Place the hazelnuts in a zip bag and gently tap with a mallet or hammer to break them open.
This was Robin’s idea!

Toast in a dry hot skillet.
Add olive oil and garlic.
Set aside when done.

Steam the chard on high heat until the leaves are wilted. Do not over cook. Drain when done.

Combine cooked chard, cooked potatoes, toasted nuts, and oil. Toss with salt-and-pepper to taste.

We served the chard dish with a delicious marinated grilled tofu with pineapple that robin made

Week 19 Recipe Pick

This will be a complete recipe-redirect to a cleaner version of a yam dish because there is no resaon to add sugar to yams.

Still no baby…maybe next week there will be a photo of the new family member 🙂

Tags: leafy greens, potato recipe, vegan recipe