This is a healthy alternative to stuffed grape leaves. It is a nice appetizer to bring to a party or picnic. You can have the lemony quinoa by itself if you want a nice quinoa dish.
Swiss chard is in season now in the farmers market so give it a try. You can also take these little pouch with you to work for lunch.
4-6 servings
12 medium Swiss chard leaves stems and ribs removed
¾ cup quinoa 1 ½ cup water
3 Tb extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion finely chopped
2 jalapeno peppers or 1 poblano chili, seeded and finely chopped
1 plum tomato, cut into ¼ inch dice
¼ cup parsley dill
¼ cup parsley
2 Tb fresh lemon juice
Celtic sea salt Fresh pepper
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, blanch the chard leaves until bright green 1 minute.
- Drain the leaves and rinse under cold water. Drain again and pat dry with a kitchen towel.
- In a sauté pan, heat the 3 Tb o olive oil. Add onion and cook over medium heat until translucent 4 minutes.
- Add peppers and cook until softened. 5 minutes. Stir in the red pepper paste.
- Add the diced tomato and cook until sizzling 1 minutes.
- Remove from the heat stir in the quinoa herbs and lemon juice. Season with salt & pepper
- Spread a chard leaf out on a work surface; overlapping the leaf to fill in the space where the rib was. You see the one on the left the leaf is overlapped. Make them all look like that.
- Mound 3 TB of the filling on the lower to middle part of the leaf.
- Bring the lower end of the leaf up and over the filling and roll up tightly, folding in the sides as you go.
- Repeat with remaining chard leaves
- Arrange the stuffed leaves on a platter
- Drizzle with oil, season with salt and lemon juice
- Serve
