MBS-spinachless salad

This week’s mystery bluebox contained:

caulifower (medium) , swiss chard, cilantro, collard greens, cucumber, greens, lemons (full of seeds), mango, red onion, plums, apricot

Spinachless salad

You won’t miss the spinach. The Swiss Chard doesn’t leave a squeaky spinach residue on your teeth and the hearty toothsome chew of the chard is remarkably better than most lettuces. Sauce it up with a warm dressing of mushrooms, bacon and red onion. Finish it with some grated hardboiled egg and you’ve got a salad that will fill you up and make you feel popeye strong.

1 bunch of swiss chard

3-4 slices of thick cut bacon, chopped

10 cremini mushrooms

½ red onion, sliced thin

½ cup olive oil

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

salt and pepper to taste

finishers

2 hardboiled eggs

olive oil

salt and pepper

PROCEDURE

First step, clean your chard and cut away the tougher stem from the center of the c hard leaf. Gather all the stems, thinly slice them and set aside. The stems need a little cooking to soften up. Keep all the leaves and chop them to make the base of the salad.

Sprinkle the chopped bacon in a cold frying pan. Put the frying pan on medium heat and let it warm up nice and slow so you get nice crispy bacon.

In a bowl combine oil, vinegar and Dijon. Mix and set aside.

When the bacon is almost crispy toss in the mushrooms and cook until they start to get some nice brown colour. Toss in the sliced stem of the swiss chard and cook until tender.

Add onions and cook to desired doneness. I like my red onions pretty raw with this salad, so it only takes a couple seconds. Add the dressing and toss to coat and bring it to a simmer.

Divide the swiss chard into two bowls and pour half the warm dressing over each salad.

Top each salad with a grated hardboiled egg and season with salt and pepper. A drizzle of olive oil is a good idea.

Serves 2