We have been harvesting tons of greens in the garden— chard, kale, sorrel, and spinach. Tons. Kale chips have been a mainstay in my garden snack file for a while; even my picky kid eats them. Looking at my basket filled with another massive round of greens I thought if kale works, why not give Swiss chard a try?

The Swiss chard chips were tasty and satisfied my salty snack craving. Just be sure to store in a totally airtight container so they stay crispy. I highly recommend this recipe for your family, but not so much when you’re entertaining guests because I guarantee you’ll have a green-flecked smile.

Swiss Chard Chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees

1 bushel of kale or Swiss chard (10-12 stalks)

1 tablespoon grape seed oil

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon sesame seeds (optional)

 

Strip leaves on the stalks of the Swiss chard and tear the larger pieces in half. On a parchment lined cookie sheet, toss ingredients together and bake for 20 minutes. Serve or store in an airtight container for up to two days.

 

Shopping tip: I find parchment sheets pre-cut to fit my cookie sheets on line at the King Arthur Flour.

I couldn’t resist these baby artichokes at the farmers market last week. It was my first batch of the season. These petite flowers with purple ruffled leaves were not only stunning, but delicious.

We had a simple easy dinner of spaghetti aglio e olio, grilled asparagus, and these marinated artichokes.  It was an easy, elegant spring time meal — oh, and my husband didn’t even realize he was enjoying a vegetarian dinner!

This recipe was posted last year on my blog, but I had to share it again. If you happen to stumble upon some of these beautiful babies, I want to make sure you’re ready to enjoy the taste of spring.

Marinated Baby Artichokes

Adapted from David Tanis: The Heart of an Artichoke

Serves 12 appetizer portions

 

3 pounds baby artichokes, about 2 dozen

Zest of one lemon

3-4 lemons—two for the lemon-water bath, and one for zest and flavor

Juice of 1 large lemon or two small, plus 1 for finishing

1/2 cup olive oil

6 ounces white wine  (and be sure to pour a little for the chef!)

3 -4 sprigs of thyme

4 small garlic cloves, chopped

Good pinch of red pepper flakes

Laurel leaves (optional)

Chopped parsley (bunch)

 

Note: Though I do grow artichokes in my garden, I didn’t have 3 pounds of them for this recipe.  Our Santa Barbara farmers market has a wonderful seller who specializes in asparagus, regular sized artichokes, and these delightful purple babies.  She is usually toward lower State at the Tuesday afternoon market.

 

To prepare the baby artichokes, peel the stem ends with a paring knife, remove a few outer leaves to reveal the pale green centers, and cut off the tops (I found that the red artichokes are a little tougher, so if you use them, you might need to remove a few more of the outer layers).

 

Cut the prepared artichokes in half and place them in a bowl of cool water with the juice of 2 lemons. The acidity of the lemon in the water will keep the ends from turning black, and you can store the artichokes in this bath at room temperature while you prep the other parts of your meal. You can also do this a day before you plan to serve, keeping the bowl in your fridge over night.

 

To cook the chokes, heat the olive oil in a large skillet (not cast iron). Drain the artichokes from their lemony water bath. Add them to the pan and season well with salt and pepper.  Then, add the wine, thyme and fresh laurel (if using). Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the artichokes are tender when you test them with a fork about 10 – 20 minutes.

 

Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, stir and cook for a minute. Off the heat, stir in the lemon zest and chopped parsley. Transfer the artichokes to a low, wide serving dish and let cool to room temp.

 

When the artichokes are cool, taste for salt and lemon juice. Add juice from your third lemon if necessary. Because fresh baby artichokes can be sweet, they need salt and acidity to balance the flavor. Cover and leave at room temp for up to several hours until ready to serve.

 

Swiss chard has a permanent spot in my garden and kitchen. I love going out to the garden and seeing those playful rainbow-colored stems peeking out of the coffee-colored mulch. What I really love are the fresh and delicious leaves. Swiss chard adds a buttery bite to so many different dishes— from winter braises to summer smoothies. This simple sauté is a great way to incorporate chard into a variety of easy and tasty dishes.

I’ll toss this simple sauté with soba noodles or pasta, stuff it in an omelet, or use it as a nest for roasted chicken or fish. Often, I’ll just fry an egg and slap it over the top. In Thailand I learned that anything with a fried egg over the top was called “special.”

Well this is certainly "special."

I love to garnish this sauté with feta, the creamy cheese is a perfect match for the chard.

The Israeli feta I get at Trader Joe's is like crack...it tastes delish on everything.

Two Minute Swiss Chard Sauté

(OK, so the prep time is five minutes max, but cook time really is two minutes)

For this sauté, I primarily use just the leaves, but a few rogue stems always end up in the mix and add such great texture and crunch to the dish. 

 

Serves 4

8 cups Swiss chard stems removed, rough chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, sliced thin

1 Chile de Arbol* or 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

*Chile de Arbol is a dried chile that you can find in most Mexican food sections of your grocery store. It adds great flavor and spice. I remove the top stem portion and then just crumble it using my fingers.

 

Prep all of your ingredients and place a large skillet on medium-high heat. Let your skillet sit on the stove and heat up (Note: this is the perfect time to pour yourself a glass of wine).

 

Next, add the olive oil to the pan with the chile (or red pepper flakes) and garlic, and cook until fragrant (about 1 minute). Scatter chopped chard leaves on top of hot oil. After about a minute, using tongs, turn the leaves until just wilted. Sprinkle with teaspoon salt. Turn off the heat and continue turning with the tongs. The chard will continue to cook as you turn the leaves. Toss into cooked pasta, serve on the side, with eggs, etc….

 

Here at the house, we’re hot for radishes. Radishes taste great, are extremely easy to grow and make any plate prettier with their amazing ruby red color. We snack on radishes plucked fresh out of the earth (we do scrub the dirt off first), slice them in thin round disks over buttery greens for an extra crunch in salads, dip them into our favorite dips, smear them with butter and a pinch of sea salt, and sometimes I even pickle them.

With the weather warming up a bit it’s a good time to start planting radish seeds. Usually, when I plant things into my garden I start from seedling— this just makes growing process so much easier. Often, the seed to seedling state can be time consuming and frustrating as you conduct war against the wind and the birds. But this is not the case with radishes. Radishes mature in only 25 – 35 days. It’s a great project to plant with your kids because the action is about as quick as it gets in garden land. Carrots are another good choice, but they do take 65-75 days to mature.

If you don’t have raised garden beds you can seed directly into containers/pots. It’s great to have pots of herbs, but know you can take it up a notch and grow veggies too. Planting instructions are the same for carrots and radishes.

Some interesting radish varieties to try:

Dikon: This is white, large East Asian radish is mild in flavor and great for pickling.

Watermelon: (Pictured above) This tender, crisp and slightly peppery radish is absolutely beautiful. I like to slice them and use them in place of crackers— gorgeous and gluten free.

French Breakfast: These radishes are those cute ones with the white tips, they have a crisp texture and a mild sweet flavor.

Here’s a recipe for pickled radishes that I made to sprinkle over my marinated hanger steaks— the flavor and crunch is totally delicious. You could also add the pickled radishes to a sandwich or jazz up your chili.

Quick Pickled Radish

Adapted from Eleven Madison Park: The Cookbook

2 cups red wine vinegar

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons salt

4 teaspoons fennel seeds (whole)

2 teaspoons coriander seeds (whole)

2 cups radishes, trimmed (any mix of variety is fine)

 

Wash, remove stems and chop radishes into quarters (for smaller varieties slice in half length-wise). Combine the vinegar, sugar, salt, fennel seeds, and coriander seeds in a saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat and pour over radishes. Cool to room temperature.

Our trees produced more figs than usual this year, so I tried my hand at drying some. I do have a dehydrator, but fruits and veggies tend to get a little too dried for my taste. So this season I dried my figs in a low oven. It’s an easy, low-maintenance method, and the payoff for minimal work is a sweet addition to your morning oatmeal or granola, or a quick upgrade to your cheese platter. You can even whip up a simple fig loaf by pulsing a handful of dried figs in your food processor with walnuts and a drizzle of honey.

Oven-Method Dried Figs

First I laid out the figs on baking racks and baked them in my oven for about eight hours at 200 degrees. I put my oven on the “surround” setting—I have no idea what that means technically, but it seemed appropriate. Every few hours I flipped the figs over with my bare hands—they were just warm to the touch, not hot. After removing the baking racks from the oven, I let them rest on the counter to cool and then stored the figs in airtight containers at room temperature. I’ve noticed that the flavor has intensified as the days pass by, and of course the sugar content of figs multiplies as they dry.