Perpetual Spinach is the star in my garden right now. It’s actually in the keyhole but it’s growing like crazy. We really could eat from this little patch every day. It grows that quickly.
It isn’t really spinach and it isn’t really perpetual . . which is kinda funny. It’s a type of chard and it’s almost perpetual. I’ve read that it will grown for nine months and here, it may really just grown through the entire year so . . maybe it is perpetual. Supposedly, the more I pick it, the more the roots produce and I’m beginning to believe that may be true. Yesterday when I was in the garden, I was standing there and I thought to myself . . if I stand here long enough, I think I will see this stuff growing! I didn’t stand there that long though!
It’s more of a chard than a spinach.
The only problem with it is that it produces a lot of oxalates and with my kidney stone history, I’m not eating as much of it as I’d like to eat. I’m cooking it more for Vince and I’ll only eat it about once a week.
Usually when I cook it, I strip the stems out, cut them into about 1″ strips, saute them with onion and garlic, then add the green leaves once the stems are tender but the other day I was looking at something and saw a recipe for fried chard stems. I looked at other recipes and it seems to be something Sicilians ate. I asked Vince if he remembered them having fried chard stems and he didn’t but I made them anyway. I’ve turned into my grandma not wanting to waste anything!
After stripping the stems out from the leaves, I coated them in a beaten egg, then dredged them in seasoned flour and fried them.
You can see that sauce back there. I made that and it was so good! I wish I’d paid more attention to what I was doing. I started out with a bit of olive oil and garlic. I used the immersion blender to chop the garlic and in the process, the olive oil got really creamy. I added honey and lime juice, then I added some of my wasabi mustard. The mix was a bit liquidy so I added some mayo. Then I saw the Sriracha sauce in the fridge and added some of that. It was so good!
We had leftover grilled chicken, leftover baked beans, the chard stems and corn. I kept dipping the chicken in the sauce for the chard. It was really good sauce and I think it would make an excellent salad dressing!
It makes me feel like I’m being frugal to use up everything and not have anything go to waste – stems or leftovers.
Beth S. says
Frugal food seems to be the new way forward. I find myself saving onion skins and other vegetable scraps that don’t go to our 2 chickens. I simmer the scraps to make a vegetable boullion, which I then use to cook rice. The onion skins broth turns the rice a light pink colour.
Judy Laquidara says
Yes! I think we’re all thinking differently about what we save and what we toss.
Susan Nixon says
That meal looks absolutely stellar! For me, food needs to be attractive, and that is a good looking plate.