Wednesday 13 July 2011

Bruschetta with Chard, Anchovies, Garlic & Lemon

At last, I am starting to see the fruits of my labour, (if you can call scattering a packet of seeds from a height very quickly on a wet day, labour) ... the vegetable patch is a late starter this year because of all the rainy weather, but today it has come good and I picked a huge bowlful of rainbow chard. The leaves are small enough to use in a salad but I wanted to make my very favourite chard dish. Super healthy, and super tasty and can easily be made with baby spinach or even spring greens (though aren't the jewel colours of rainbow chard beautiful? Do find some if you can. )

This is not hard to make, takes only a few minutes to prepare and doesn't have a huge list of ingredients. It is simply one of those Italian-inspired recipes where the freshness of the ingredients shines through - made for eating outside in the sunshine with a glass of red for lunch.

Bruschetta with Rainbow Chard, Anchovies, Garlic & Lemon

4 thin slices of baguette or crusty bread
1 clove of garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
2 handfuls of rainbow chard (or other leafy greens: swiss chard, spinach, cavalo nero etc)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
4 anchovy fillets, chopped finely
juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
1tsp sea salt
                                                      drizzle of olive oil

 Heat a griddle pan (or pre-heat the oven and bake till crisp) and toast the slices of bread until crisp. 
Rub the clove of garlic across the bread  and set aside.
Saute the chard in the olive oil and garlic until wilted then add the anchovies, lemon juice and lemon zest and warm through.
Serve the chard on top of the bread and sprinkle with sea salt and drizzle with olive oil.
Quite lovely.

4 comments:

  1. This looks so fresh and good! And with a glass of red in the sun...! Perfect.

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  2. indeed - you're all probably getting more sun than i am this summer.......of course i'm not complaining. this does look delicious.

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  3. Made this recipe last night, absolutely cracking, used Phantassie Organic's rainbow chard & it looked stunning. I manage Earthy Foods & Goods in Edinburgh, would you mind if we posted the recipe on our food blog http://earthyfoods.blogspot.com/ gave you a credit and a linked to your site?

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  4. Hi Archie, glad you enjoyed it, I love your store, shop there all the time and I'd be delighted for you to use the recipe, Marie (ps spicy sweet potato cakes with chard coming later this week)

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