Red Chard & White Bean Ragout

Red Chard a photo by mandymooo on Flickr.

The fridge was full of huge green leafy red chard, the vegetable draw was full of parsnips...the potatoes were thinking of sprouting...I was about to have a kitchen emergency!!!!

I wanted more than a ratatouille style stew so I did some recipe searches to get some ideas and came up with this. I'm posting here so I remember what I did, because I'll definitely make it again. The significant other ate two bowls and said he wanted leftovers for lunch the next day, so I think it came out okay.  It needs a topping such as cheese, Daiya shreds or nutritional yeast flakes, and if you're not vegetarian some small peices of ham or bacon might be nice.

Ingredients needed 

•  Large bunch of red chard (about 8-10 leaves), red stalks removed from green leaves
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 1 large clove of garlic
• Olive oil
• I large potato
• 1 small yam or sweet potato
• 2 parsnips (or large carrots) 

*You need a total of about 1 lb potato/yam/parsnip mix*

• 1 tbsp Herbs De Provence (or your favorite herb mixture)
• 1 can of white beans (I used cannellini)
• 1 can of chopped Roma tomatoes
• Salt and pepper

How to cook it
Chop the onion and slice the red chard stalks into 1/2 inch pieces (mine were 1 cm, 'cause I'm from the UK, smirk) and saute in a heavy iron skillet for 3-5 minutes in olive oil (save the chard leaves for later in the recipe).  Add the chopped garlic and cook for another 5 minutes, stir frequently so the onion and and garlic does not become too brown. The redness from the chard stalks will make the onion a nice pink color.

Add the chopped potato, yam and parsnips.  Add 1 cup of water, the drained beans and can of tomatoes.  Mix well and add Herbs de Provence, cover the pot and simmer for 30 minutes until the potatoes and parsnips are tender but not mushy.

Taste and season if needed.  Add the chopped chard leaves and cook for another 15 minutes until the leaves are tender.

Serve in bowls and top with your favorite cheese or cheese replacement. Serve with crunchy bread, crackers or chips.  The beans and potatoes make it quite hearty, the chard and tomatoes make you feel good about what you're eating.

I had this with a glass of Cabernet/Merlot-blend red wine and they went very well together.

This makes enough for 4 servings, or in our case, dinner for 2 and lunch for 2 the next day!