Saffron and Honey

Swiss chard with fried capers, olives, and roasted garlic

January 15, 2013 — capers, Chard, crunch, Dinner, garlic, Olive oil, olives, pumpkin seeds, roasted, salad, Salads, saute, swiss chard, winter greens

Despite that temporary transgression into giant.russian.rumballs, I do cook and eat a lot of greens every day.

And I don’t mean just inventing new ways to enjoy my favorite kale salad {current favorite additions to that include anchovies and a sriracha vinaigrette}.

Here is another simple idea for a swiss chard preparation, with a little salty and briny kick from olives and capers, balanced by the sweetness of roasted garlic.

It makes for a perfectly cozy dish of winter greens.

Tips: I used ‘elephant’ garlic, which are really huge and punchy garlic cloves, hence I only used one. If you are using regular garlic, which is perfectly fine, use about 3 cloves. Don’t worry, roasting the garlic really softens its flavor. 

It is probably easier to use pitted olives but the kind I get are often unpitted – just press on them with the flat of your knife like you would on a garlic clove, and remove the pit.

Swiss chard with fried capers, olives, and roasted garlic

You’ll need:

• 2 bunches swiss chard, stemmed and trimmed, chopped
• 1 t capers
• about 10-12 various olives (green and/or kalamata), chopped roughly
• 1 clove elephant garlic (or 3 cloves regular garlic)
• olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Wrap garlic cloves – leave it unpeeled – in aluminum foil and roast for about 30-40 minutes until tender and fragrant.

2. Heat up a tablespoon of olive oil in a large, deep pan. Fry capers and olives for a few minutes – they should be sizzling!

3. Reduce heat to low, add chard and saute gently, stirring often, until just tender but still bright green.

4. Top with sliced roasted garlic and serve immediately.

What else would be great: add in some rye croutons or toasted pumpkin seeds!