Chard and chorizo tart

The chard plants have gone rather mad on the allotment this year - here they are a month or so ago - they're now well over six feet tall.



So we've eaten lots of chard with a dash of lemon juice and olive oil, and it's been cunningly hidden in all sorts of vegetable sauces. But before outright rebellion began, I had the bright idea of combining it with chorizo...

You'll need:

a large bagful of chard leaves (you could also use spinach)
1 onion, finely chopped
lots of chorizo, sliced (I used about 10 slices for three of us)
2 eggs
a dash of milk
shortcrust pastry

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and find a quiche/flan tin or dish (preferably with a removable bottom).

Gently fry the onion in a little olive oil until it's translucent. Wash the chard, drain in a colander, and then tip into the onion pan. It'll gently wilt, and shrink to about a tenth of its former volume over a couple of minutes. Stir it occasionally to stop it sticking.

Line the flan dish with your shortcrust pastry, and then place the whole thing on a baking sheet. Tip the chard/onion mixture on top of the pastry, and then decorate roughly with the chorizo slices. Beat the two eggs together in a mixing jug, and add a splash of milk (or cream if you have it lying around the fridge). Tip into the pastry case, season with some ground black pepper, and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until the pastry is crisp and the eggy mixture is set.


It goes very well with a tomato salad. Or more green leaves, if you've got an allotment glut...

Smoked mackerel with onion rice and greens

Nicked from Hugh Fearnley-Whearnley in the Guardian at the weekend, but no worse for it. This made a really nice, quick mid-week supper.

Makes enough for three. You'll need

200g rice
1 medium onion, finely chopped
greens - the cabbage, chard, spinach type of thing
1 clove garlic, minced
a couple of tablespoons olive oil
a couple of teaspoons of cider vinegar
smoked mackerel - a fillet or so each

Fry the onion gently in a little olive oil until it turns translucent. Add the rice, and swirl around to coat in the oily onion, before pouring in 450ml water. Leave on a low heat until the rice has absorbed all the water and is cooked (this will take about 10-12 minutes).

Meanwhile, chop up your greens into thin ribbons. Fry the garlic in the 2 tablespoons of olive oil until it colours slightly, then add the cider vinegar and take off the heat. A couple of minutes before the rice is ready, plunge your greens into some boiling water, and cook until al dente.

Then all you have to do is plate up - assemble a fillet of mackerel, and a spoonful of rice (or three) on each plate. Drain the greens, then toss in the olive oil/cider vinegar/garlic dressing, and dole out.

Chicken and rice in a chard parcel

One of the more random meals we've had recently, inspired by the fact there was a load of Swiss/rainbow chard in the fridge after a trip to the allotment.

Makes enough for 4. You'll need:

2 chicken breasts, sliced into chunks
1 onion, finely sliced
10 large leaves of chard
dried thyme
about half a mugful of rice (or whatever cooked rice you've got lurking in your fridge)
1 small courgette, diced
1 green pepper, diced

1 tin of tomatoes
a splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C.

First of all make your tomato sauce - it's a doddle. Simply tip the tin of tomatoes into a large frying pan, add a splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

While that's going on, cook your rice (or extract it from the fridge). Sling it into a large bowl.

Add a slug of olive oil to a frying pan, and brown your chicken. Tip it into the bowl of rice. Add the onion, pepper and courgette to the chickeny pan (you may have to add a little extra olive oil), and cook on a low heat until they've softened. Tip this lot into the bowl, and season with salt and black pepper - you should now have everything you need for the filling.

Plunge the large leaves of chard into a pan of boiling water for 3-4 minutes, until they've softened. You're now ready to wrap...take each leaf, and plonk a good spoonful of the filling in the middle. Fold over the edges of the leaf to make a parcel, and place in an ovenproof baking dish.

Once you've done all the parcels, drizzle the tomato sauce on top, until they're nicely covered. You could top it with a little cheese too, before you sling it in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until everything is heated through and piping hot.

Spaghetti with tuna, spinach and lemon

Actually, this may not have been spinach - it might have been chard. It's grown some rather enormous leaves on the allotment, anyway, which the snails have started to take a liking to. So we thought we should get in first.

You'll need:

enough spaghetti for three (a small handful per person - spaghetti always miraculously expands when cooked)
1 large onion, finely sliced
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
unidentified green leaves - preferably spinach/chard or that sort of thing, sliced into strips
1 tin of tuna
lemon zest (about half a lemon will do)
lots of black pepper

Stick the spaghetti into a large pan of boiling water - it'll need 7-8 minutes until it's al dente.

In the meantime, fry the onion and garlic in a good slug of olive oil, until they've softened. Add the greens, and fry for a couple of minutes until they've wilted. Stir in the tuna, and leave to warm through.

Drain the spaghetti, and tip into the greens/tuna pan. Stir everything thoroughly, so the spaghetti becomes covered with the tuna and onions. Season well with lots of black pepper, and some grated lemon zest.

Divide up into bowls, and top with a little extra drizzle of olive oil, and maybe some parmesan cheese.

Chard with lemon and olive oil

You wouldn't want to eat this on its own, but (a) it's good with things like sausages and (b) it makes chard taste nice, which is something of a miracle.

You'll need:

chard - much like spinach it cooks down, so you'll need more than you think
a lemon, juiced
a very good slug of peppery olive oil
lots of black pepper

Wash the chard, and roughly slice the leaves/stalks (you could do fine ribbons, but I can't usually be bothered). Plunge into a pan of boiling water for 6 minutes.

Drain, and tip the chard into a bowl. Pour over the lemon juice, and a really good slug of olive oil. Grind over lots of black pepper.

Serve fast, before it has chance to cool down.