Swiss Chard Stalk and Tahini Dip
Published October 21, 2009
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
- Total Time
- 20 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
1 pound Swiss chard stalks, coarsely chopped (about 4 cups)
Salt to taste
2 to 4 garlic cloves (to taste), peeled, green shoots removed
½ cup sesame tahini, stirred if the oil has separated
¼ to ½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, to taste
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Nutritional analysis per serving
10 grams carbs; 224 calories; 9 grams monosaturated fat; 7 grams polyunsaturated fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 20 grams fat; 3 grams fiber; 220 milligrams sodium; 6 grams protein; 1 gram sugar
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Steam the chard stalks about 15 minutes or until tender when pierced with a fork. Drain well, and allow to cool. Place in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Puree, stopping the machine from time to time to scrape down the sides.
- Step 2
In a mortar, mash the garlic with ½ teaspoon salt until you have a smooth paste. Add to the chard stalks. Process until smooth. Add the tahini, and again process until smooth. With the machine running, add the lemon juice and salt to taste. Stop the machine, taste and adjust seasonings.
- Step 3
Transfer the dip to a wide bowl. It will be a little runny (unless the tahini you used was thick) but will stiffen up. Drizzle on the olive oil and serve.
Advance preparation: This dish will keep for about three days, but the fresher it is, the better.Martha Rose Shulman can be reached at martha-rose-shulman.com.
Private Notes
Comments
The chard stems give this hummus-like dip a wonderfully rich, earthy flavor. I used rainbow chard stems, which gave it a wonderfully rich color as well. Wonderful use for chard stems, although you can always chop up the chard stems and include them in virtually any dish you're cooking--they should never go to waste. A wonderful variant on hummus and wonderful with crackers or crudites.
So simple, amazingly nutritious, and completely excellent for eating! One note: even with rainbow chard stems, the color of the finished product is kind of a blah pink. Use a pigmented flavor agent (beets or parsley have worked well for me) to make this dish look as delicious as it tastes.
Made as written with white stalks only. Delicious and looked similar to plain hummus. Emphasize: drain the chard stalks *well*. I drained cursorily, and the whizzed puree was too wet. DH, not realizing how much vegetable it was (!), tossed it with glass noodles, soy, and siracha the next day for Asian noodle salad, also great.
We tried, this type of dip freezes well (for years). We put it in a bunch of small-sized jars.
I made this as written except that I just threw all the ingredients into the food processor at once and more or less eyeballed the ingredient quantities – and it's divine! My husband and I gobbled it up in one sitting. Not bad for a five-minute exercise of a recipe (I had steamed the stalks the night before). Will definitely be adding this to the regular rotation.
I’ve tried 3-4x with this recipe and it’s never quite been right. It’s always ALMOST tasty. Adding ACV helps with flavor and some lemon pepper seasoning.