Ingredients
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup fresh white bread crumbs, from two slices white bread
3 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated (1 cup)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Herbes de Provence
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup half and half
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 pounds Swiss chard, leaves and stems separated and both cut into 1-inch pieces
1 pound spinach, coarse stems discarded, leaves coarsely chopped

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400*F. 
2. Melt 2 tablespoons butter and toss with bread crumbs, cheese, garlic, herbs, half of nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste in small bowl. 

3. Boil broth in a small saucepan until reduced by half.  Add half and half. 

4. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in small saucepan over medium heat and stir in flour.  Cook, stirring, 1 minute.  Then stir in broth mixture and boil, stirring, 1 minute.  Season sauce with salt and pepper. 

5. Cook onion in remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a large pot over medium-low heat, stirring, until softened.  Add chard stems, remaining nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste.  Cook, stirring, until vegetables are tender but not browned, about 8 minutes. 

6. Increase heat to medium-high and add chard leaves and spinach by large handfuls, stirring, until all greens are wilted.  Season with salt and pepper. 

7. Transfer vegetables to a colander to drain well and press out liquid with back of a large spoon.  (Alternately, you could salad spin the vegetables to remove as much liquid as possible.)  Toss vegetables with sauce and transfer to a buttered baking dish, spreading evenly. 

8. Top vegetables with bread crumbs and bake until edges are bubbling and topping is golden, about 20 minutes. 



Comments
This recipe is from epicurious.com and I greatly enjoyed it.  The guys found it palatable, but they’re not really loved of greens in the first place.  This is sad. I thought the dish, thanks to the great flavors in the topping, was tasty and I’d be willing to make it again if anyone else wanted to eat it with me.  Between you and me, blog readers, I’m quite content just to have Cheater Greens whenever we get greens in our box.  And not just for the bacon!

Shown here with sautéed goat chops.  Teeny, tiny, sautéed goat chops.

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds turnips, trimmed, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
Salt and pepper

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 500*F. 

2. In a medium bowl, toss the turnips with the butter and season them generously with salt and pepper. Spread the turnips evenly onto a roasting pan with room between the pieces. Roast, 25-30 minutes, or until the turnips are tender and brown in spots.  Toss halfway through cooking for even browning. 



Comments
This recipe is from Cookthink.  I was hoping that the turnips would crisp up like potatoes do when roasted, but they remained pretty soft.  The butter did add a nice sweetness to the turnips and they were tasty, but I don’t think I’ll be using this preparation in the future unless I can figure out how to get them to crisp up a bit – maybe pan frying would be more effective? 

Shown here with Grilled Marinated Chuck Steak.

Ingredients
2 pounds Swiss chard, leaves and stems chopped
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 cup fresh parsley, minced
3 large eggs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated or shredded
1 cup bread crumbs

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350*F. 

2. In a large saucepan, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic, cook until soft and golden brown, about 5 minutes.  Add Swiss chard and parsley.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until chard is wilted and stems are soft.  Remove from heat and let cool. 

3. Break eggs into small bowl.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add Parmesan and mix with a whisk or a fork until well-blended.  Add the Swiss chard mixture to the eggs and stir to combine. 

4. Oil a 9-inch baking dish with the remaining olive oil.  Dust bottom of baking dish with 1/2 cup bread crumbs.  Carefully place the Swiss chard mixture into the pan.  Coat top with remaining Parmesan and then remaining bread crumbs. 

5. Bake until the top is golden brown, about 30 minutes. 



Comments
This is a recipe from Mario Batali that I found while looking for something exciting to do with the first Swiss chard of the year.  The original recipe called for some extra steps, but this version is much more streamlined and fairly simple to bring together.  We did feel that there were too many bread crumbs in the topping, so next time I’d reduce the total bread crumbs to 3/4 cup. 

Art loved this and would have had seconds if we didn’t have gorgeous strawberries waiting for dessert.  I think it’s a great way to prepare chard and will revisit the recipe in the future. 

Shown here with Mom’s Chicken.

Ingredients
2 (15 ounces each) cans garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained (A.K.A. chickpeas.)
3 bunches green onion, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
3 stalks celery, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
2 teaspoons pickle relish (Finding relish that is HFCS-free is difficult.)
2-3 tablespoons mayonnaise
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions
1. Using fork or masher, mash beans to a rough and chunky consistency.  (This can also be done carefully in a food processor.  You want the beans to be rough, not smooth like hummus.)

2. Combine beans and remaining ingredients in a bowl.  Stir well and chill in refrigerator before serving. 



Comments
The other day I was looking for lunch ideas to take when I visit my brother, the vegetarian, later in May.  A friend suggested that I try this salad and it’s delicious!  The texture is similar to tuna salad and it’s pretty similar in taste thanks to all of the other ingredients, it’s just lacking the fishiness of the tuna.  You could easily modify this to suit your tastes, I might add cherry tomatoes next time or even cucumber.  For a vegan version, just use your favorite vegan mayonnaise substitute.  This will probably be my lunch for the rest of the week and I’ll be making a double batch later in the month when I visit my brother!

I like my salads to be chunky, if you don't you should cut the onions and celery into smaller pieces.

Ingredients
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
1 medium head green cabbage
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

Instructions
1. Adjust oven rack to upper middle position. Place rimmed baking sheet on rack and heat oven to 450*F. Combine salt, pepper, and sugar in small bowl. Quarter cabbage through core and cut each quarter into 1-inch wedges, leaving core intact. You'll have about 16 wedges. (I had 12.)  Brush cabbage wedges all over with oil and sprinkle with salt mixture.

2. Arrange cabbage on hot baking sheet and roast until cabbage is tender and lightly browned around edges, about 25 minutes. Drizzle cabbage with vinegar. Serve. 



Comments
Cabbage is a vegetable that I don’t have a lot of experience with, but this recipe from the 2009 Cook's Country Annual looked promising.  I did forget to preheat the baking sheet, so I’ll have to try it out again at some point.  Even with my mistake, I still thought the cabbage was fantastic.  The flavor was great, the texture was lovely, and the balsamic added a nice finish.

Shown here with Tourtiere.