Category: Recipe

What a beautiful looking plant ‘Rhubarb’ chard is. It always catches my eye as I walk past it in the field. Its bright red stems contrasting with the deep dark green glossy foliage, it just says ‘healthy’ to me.

It has nothing to do with Rhubarb apart from its appearance but a few customers have asked me if it is Rhubarb when they have spotted it.
Rhubarb Chard is a variation on Swiss Chard (Beta Vulgaris), a member of the beet family related to beetroot and sugar beet. There are also yellow and pink variations. It cooks and tastes similar to spinach but I personally think that it has more flavour.

Nutrition wise, it is up there with some of the healthiest foods being one of the most nutritious vegetables around weight for weight. It contains loads of good stuff such as vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, magnesium, manganese, copper, potassium, iron, choline, vitamin E, vitamin B2, calcium, vitamin B6, phosphorus and protein.

Why are we not eating more of it then? We once had some Mediterranean visitors to the farm who got quite animated and excited when seeing it growing and demanded we sell them a huge bunch of it. It seems that they knew its value.

As the recipe says, this is an easy one to cook and a great side dish.

Easy Rhubarb Chard

1 x 400g bunch of Swiss Chard
1 dessertspoon coconut oil
1 large clove garlic
1 red chilli, sliced
1/4 tsp coriander seeds

Rinse the rainbow chard and separate the stalks from the leaves.

Cut the stalks into 2 1/2 cm pieces, roll the leaves and cut them into 2 1/2cm slices (keep the stalks and leaves separate).

Heat the coconut oil in a large frying pan or wok and saute the garlic, chilli and coriander seeds over a medium heat for about 30 seconds.

Add the rainbow chard stalks, lower the heat, cover the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes.

Add the chopped leaves and toss with the garlic, chilli and stalks mixture.

Cover the pan and cook for a further 3-4 minutes until tender.

Stir and serve.

(Recipe adapted from Easy Swiss Chard on Simple Recipes).

As I grew up, runner beans were never one of my favourites. A memory of the stringy, sharp cornered ‘over rippened’ things that my dad once brought in from our home plot, took some time to fade.

I am pleased to say that Greenslate beans are not like that, they are a delight. With a season like we are having at the moment, runner beans are thriving.

I believe in trying everything that we grow, so I brought some home and asked Jane what she fancied doing with them.

Trying new recipes is a big thing for us and this is what she came up with. Adapted to suit our tastes from a recipe by Kris Dhillon, this recipe gave me a new perspective on the Runner Bean.

This recipe would serve about 4-6 people as a side dish but two hungry vegetarians managed to wolf down the lot in one sitting.

It is a mildly spiced dish with subtle curry tastes that didn’t bury the flavour of the beans. Very moreish, I was thinking that I would have some left for lunch the next day; it didn’t happen.

 

Runner Bean Bhaji

500g runner beans, topped and tailed and cut into 1cm pieces
1 large onion
1 dessert spoon coconut oil
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
3 cm piece of fresh ginger, chopped finely
1 large green or red chilli, chopped finely
1 tsp turmeric
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp garam marsala

Method

Melt the coconut oil in pan and saute the onions until just starting to take on some colour.

Add the garlic and ginger and cook or a further minute.

Add the chilli, salt and turmeric and stir.

Add the runner beans and stir to combine everything.

Add a little boiling water, stir, cover with a lid and cook over a low/medium heat for about 20 minutes. Stir every now and then and add a little more water if necessary.

When the runner beans are tender stir in the garam masala and cook for 1 minute more.

Serve with cucumber raita, rice and naan bread or as a side dish.