Article written by Sarah Faye McMullen
Ingredients:
- 16-20 good-sized chard leaves, washed and de-stemmed
- 2 cups of rice (brown, preferably), cooked with carrots, onions, garlic, two bay leaves, pepper, salt, fresh herbs (thyme, oregano, rosemary), zucchini, olive oil, and small can of tomato paste
- tomato-basil sauce (same as the eggplant parmesan sauce recipe from the June 2004 newsletter)
Good afternoon, cooking class! As we have learned in past sessions, the tomato-basil sauce is quite flavorful and will again provide the kick we need to boost the flavor of our chard wraps. You should prepare your rice at about the same time that the sauce is cooking. Saute the vegetables first in olive oil so that they really take in the flavor of the onions, garlic, and herbs. Add your rice to the veggies to brown a bit and then add the water and tomato paste. When it finishes, the rice should still be wet.
Once the sauce and rice are finished, we're ready to roll! Put about two spoonfuls of rice (or more--you decide) onto a chard leaf and roll, making sure to fold the ends inward first. Fill up the baking dish you are using. If you'll have two layers, ladle some sauce in between. Ladle your sauce over the top, cover the dish, and place in the oven to steam cook. Fifteen to twenty minutes at about 350 degrees should be fine. I really enjoy the bright green color that chard takes on when it first steams, so I usually take them out fairly soon after that point. ENJOY!
