Chard with chilli, shallot and cider vinaigrette | from On the Side
First among equals
This is a sample of the kind of recipe you can expect on Rocket & Squash, A Cook's Digest. I hope you enjoy it.
Although some content will always remain free, a portion of newsletters will only be available to supporters of Rocket & Squash. If you would like to receive all weekly newsletters and new recipes, and to view the archive without restriction, then simply upgrade to a paid membership. For this introductory period, that costs just £4.50 a month / £45 a year.
(Small monthly/annual fee —> recipes, words, Oxford commas, and my eternal love.)
This is the first recipe in my cookbook On the Side. As in, if you turn the pages methodically, it’s the first recipe you reach once through all the introductory bits. Nearly 9 years since writing it, I can’t recall exactly why it went first, other than it’s a leafy green, and that’s how I chose to kick-off the section on Greens. The book flows through a few more chard and cabbage, kale and sprout recipes, through European broccolis, Asian greens, peas, beans, chicories and lettuces … and then on to vegetables, fruits and flowers; roots, squash and potatoes; grains, pulses, pasta and rice. In short, 139 side dishes to plan a meal around. This was simply the first of them; but one I turn to often, and so am sharing it here too.
The recipes is extracted below in its entirety from On the Side (Bloomsbury, 2017). Photography by Joe Woodhouse.
Chard is an odd one. The difference in texture between the hard stalks and the leaves that disappear at the merest hint of heat makes it a bit of a pain to cook, and I’m sure some people question how rewarding an eat it is.
But it really is! The obvious thing to do is simply to wilt the stalks and leaves separately, season with salt and pepper and maybe add a glug of olive oil or a knob of butter. Which is fine, but this dressing enlivens things further. The sweet-sour of the vinegar and chilli and the hint of raw shallot work so well against the earthy and ever-so-slightly bitter stem and warm-but-barely-wilted leaf; I love it. Fatty pork chops or shoulder steaks, lamb and beef are big fans of the combination too.
It takes barely three minutes to cook this dish, so make sure you have all the other components of your meal ready before throwing the leaves into the pan. Large-leaf spinach or cavolo nero work well as a substitute for the chard.
Here’s the recipe: