Spaghetti Squash with Braised Greens and Sausage

There's a new recipe website called Gojee that lets you enter in the ingredients you have on hand, the ingredients you dislike and any ingredients that you crave and populates recipes based on those variables. Given the variability of the items in my produce share every two weeks, this site is great for helping me figure out how to best use those items before they spoil.

Last weekend my share included both kale and swiss chard, two veggies I have a hard time using on their own, but both in one share usually results in one spoiling before I figure out how to use them. Enter Gojee. I visited the site, entered in kale as an ingredient I craved and the first recipe to pop up was for Braised Kale and Spaghetti.

I looked over the recipe and quickly decided to try substituting spaghetti squash for the pasta and using the swiss chard instead of double kale. The results were absolutely delicious! We will definitely be making this again, and I can't wait to see what else I can do with spaghetti squash.

Printer Friendly Version
Spaghetti Squash with Braised Greens and Sausage


Ingredients
1 spaghetti squash
1 bunch kale
1 bunch swiss chard
1 medium yellow onion, minced
8 garlic cloves, sliced
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
3 Italian sausage links (I used chicken sausage)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the spaghetti squash on a baking sheet and bake in the oven whole for an hour.

While the squash is baking, cut the kale and chard leaves from the thick stems and cut into one inch strips. Rinse thoroughly and set aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat.

 Add the onions and saute until soft, about 6 minutes.

 Add the sliced garlic and cook until fragrant and beginning to brown, about 4 minutes.

 Remove the sausage from the casing and break up into little pieces and brown the sausage.

After the sausage is browned, add the kale and chard to the pot and the final tablespoon of olive oil and toss to coat. The greens will be at the top of the pot to begin, continue to stir until the leaves are wilted.

Cover and cook on medium for 20 minutes, stirring occaisionally. If the contents look dry at any point, add a teaspoon of water.
When the squash is done, remove from the oven, let cool and cut in half. Remove the seeds and return to the oven for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, remove from the oven and begin to scrape the contents out with a fork.

Place the squash in a large bowl and set aside. When the greens are done add the contents of the dutch oven to the squash along with the Parmesan and lemon juice.

Toss to combine and flavor with salt and pepper to taste.

Source: Adapted from Mehan's Kitchen

Sauteed Rainbow Chard

About a month ago Robert and I began to discuss joining a produce co-op here in Dallas called Urban Acres. The basic idea is that a group of people opt in and pay an annual membership fee (in this case $50) and a bi-weekly bin fee ($50 for a full share or 30 lbs/$30 for a half share or 15 lbs) and they buy organic produce from local farmers at wholesale prices.

The great news is you get a lot of organic, local food for a great price; the bad news is you don't get to pick what produce ends up in your bin every two weeks. After much discussion we decided we were ready to take the risk and I committed to using every produce item we received no matter how foreign. This past Saturday we picked up our first half share, pictured below. Included was rainbow chard, kale, radishes, a giant beet, strawberries, apples, oranges, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, broccoli, lettuce, red potatoes, a yellow onion and a red onion. Like I said, a lot of food for $30!

There were quite a few items in our bin that were completely new to us, but having recently seen an episode of Chopped where the chefs were required to use rainbow chard, I knew that was the first new vegetable I wanted to try. The result is the below sauteed rainbow chard recipe. I'll admit, we were both nervous about this dish but were pleasantly surprised by the flavors we encountered.

The garlic and olive oil give a great dimension to the spinach-like flavor of the chard. Additionally, by sautéing the greens as opposed to boiling them they were not as mushy as greens can tend to be. Finally, as I learned in that Chopped episode, the stems of the chard contain a lot of flavor, so I chopped them and included them in the sauté. This added a slight crunch to the greens and gave it a nice texture contrast. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Printer Friendly Version

Sautéed Rainbow Chard

Ingredients

4 cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 bunch of rainbow chard

Instructions

Begin by trimming the bottom inch off the stems of the chard followed by cutting the leaves off the stem.

Roughly chop the leaves and place in a small bowl.

Chop the stems into inch long pieces, place in a separate bowl.

Peel the garlic cloves and thinly slice.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.

Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes.

 Add the chard stems and sauté for 7 minutes.

Add the chard leaves a handful at a time, allowing each group to wilt before adding more.

The chard is done when all the leaves are wilted and the garlic slices are golden brown.

Remove to a serving dish and enjoy.