do I do with these rainbow chard stems?
Don't throw em out! Make an easy salad with rainbow chard stems, grilled lemons, and sausages.
Shout out to the Prune cookbook (and my sister for gifting it to me) for this super easy recipe that hails from the "Waste" chapter.
So instead of throwing out those stems, hold on to them!
GARLIC. Mince one garlic clove and place in a small dish, add 2 tbsp of olive oil and let that sit on the side. (Chopping the garlic before working the stems/letting it soak in olive oil will cut the sharpness of the garlic and infuse the olive oil.)
SAUSAGES. Get them into a pan (cast iron works for this) and semi submerge (like halfway) them in water. Place a lid on the pan and turn on the stove to medium heat. Turn the sausages over after 7 min. After another 7 min, remove the lid, turn the heat to a medium high and let the water evaporate fully. Turning the sausages over, keep it going till the skin gets some caramelization.
RAINBOW CHARD STEMS. Boil a pot of salted water, once the water is boiling, add the chard stems for 3-4 minutes. Drain the stems and lay them out to dry. Make sure these guys are fully dry. So I don't have a grill, but I do have a gas stovetop. i layed out the rainbow chard stems on my burners for a few minutes on each. Once you see the charring on the stems, take them off the fire and place on a serving plate. salt n pepper
LEMON. Grab a pan (I prefer using a cast iron for this) and cut that lemon in half. Turn the heat on to a med/high and place the lemons face down on the pan for about 5 min /until you see some charring and juice is oozing.
EL FIN. Before serving, drizzle the garlic infused olive oil (including the minced garlic). Plate the sausages and lemons onto the same serving dish. Before digging in, squeeze the juice over the stems (and sausages cuz yolo)