seasonal, modern, exuberant
Swiss chard is one of the most widely available (and consumed!) leafy greens. Beet greens, on the other hand, are usually unceremoniously tossed in the trash… the roots are typically the main attraction. But did you know that beets and Swiss chard belong to the same family of veggies?
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The inspiration for this recipe came from my own vegetable garden. It was early fall, the Swiss chard was looking luscious and begging to be picked, the carrots had patiently waited all summer long to be pulled (their moment had arrived!), and the scallions were threatening to invade the whole patch.
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I can’t think of a breakfast fare my husband, Marc, and I relish more than these poached eggs with sautéed greens. I often make this dish on Sunday mornings, in the fall and winter, when I can still harvest mustard greens or Swiss chard from our veggie garden.
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Swiss chard is probably the most commonly used leafy green for sautéing. And that’s for good reasons: Swiss chard is incredibly delicious when wilted and it adapts itself to many different types of dishes.
One drawback though, is that its stalks are fibrous and firm, and need a longer cooking time than the green leaves. So most of the time, the leaves are torn from the stalks and used on their own.
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When I was a child, the only beets I ever saw were the ones that came from a can. Needless to say, I never liked beets… The odor emanating from the can alone used to make me run out of the kitchen as fast as my legs could move.
It’s not until I started growing my own vegetables in my early 20′s that I truly discovered beets. They were very easy to grow and if re-seeded a couple of times in the season, I could harvest them from late spring all the way to the first snow. They came in all kinds of colors and best of all I could eat the roots as well as feast on their luscious green tops. I became a voracious fan of beets!
A quick way to prepare the beet greens is to sauté them with garlic and red pepper flakes (I love adding a bit of spiciness to cooked leafy greens – it’s a marriage made in heaven!). Here I serve these warm beet-green crostini as an hors d’oeuvre or appetizer. Cooked this way, the greens become incredibly tender and flavorful.
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