Aloo Chard

Heylo everyone!!

Fig. 1. Aloo Chard

I know I have been very remiss.. Haven't been visiting online much, haven't been posting much and quite honestly haven't been cooking very much either. Shame-shame na.. But I'll be good now.. I'll cook and post and blog-hop too! Well, I'll try anyway! :)

Back to the food.. This post is about Red Chard. And notes to myself about using it in future.

When I go grocery shopping, I try to get something I "didn't get last time". That is actually not as easy as it sounds. Especially if I have been slacking off from the blogosphere. I tend to relapse into my old ways of buying the same-same stuff over and over. Spinach, bag of salad, onions, tomatoes, beans, carrots.. Really! And how would anyone be induced to cook with that same-old same-old!!

So every now and then I remind myself to just go with the seasons and cycle through all the fruits and vegetables over the year. But quite honestly I have little idea of what is in season and what isn't.

I try to reason that probably the in-season foods must over-fill the market in season, right? So instead of doing research and homework about it, I just hop over to the grocers and look around to see which vegetable is available in plllennty and pick up some. That way, on an average we end up eating most veggies at one time or another.

A few days ago I got a big bunch of Red Chard. I had never eaten Red Chard before, knowingly that is ;). So I wasn't quite sure what I would make with it. I wasn't even sure it was in-season at all. There was plenty of it. And it looked good and fresh. So I said.. hey-ho, lets go for it! Maybe it is the season for Red Chard!

One bunch of Red Chard had maybe 10 huge leaves in it... with giant red stems.
1) I added one leaf to a dal (I do that with spinach). Ok. Not as soft as spinach.
2) Then I made a simple stir-fried bhaji with 4-5 of the leaves. Pretty decent. 
3) I added 2-3 leaves along with the stems to a mixed vegetable soup (with cauliflower, tomatoes and carrots), cook, blend, add water, pepper, bullion cubes and you are ready. The chopped up stems, added towards the end, taste nice and crunchy. "Ekdum suBBak!!" *** Must make again! ***

But I was still left with two huge leaves.. That's when I made this stir fry with potatoes. I vote for the soup and this sabzi absolutely any day!! (That's why posting here). This sabzi was so simple and so flavourful..!!

Recipe for Aloo Chard:
Season some panch-phoran (equal parts of cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, kalonji, fennel seeds and mustard seeds) in hot oil. Add the chopped leaves with chopped stems and cubed, pre-cooked, peeled potatoes. Add salt and a tiny bit of turmeric. Mix and cook in the microwave till the leaves wilt. Squeeze some lemon juice!

Aahaha.. we ate this just like that as a snack! The Aloo-Chard combo is perfect and the panch phoran makes it just spectacular! Super!!!

Cheers and thanks for reading!