Shredded chard should be on every single menu at every single restaurant… in the world! Now if that doesn’t express my enthusiasm for shredded chard, I don’t know what will.
Originally, I was going to recreate one of my older recipes with better pictures and post it up today – I had been craving it for dinner, so I figured why not kill two birds with one stone and make a blog post out of it and save the rest for leftovers.
That recipe was this one – the Escarole and Lentil Tower with Zucchini Pasta.
So what happened?
As I was taking my Tupperware container full of lentils, the top slid off and – BAM! – lentils all over my kitchen floor. Lentils for days. Lentils under my carpets, lentils in my sneakers, lentils under my sink, lentils in every single crevice of my kitchen you could imagine. I even found lentils under the couch!
Ugh. Obviously, I scrapped the lentil tower, because, well, the lentils were “dirty” and I was frustrated. Sometimes, a girl’s gotta take a hint from the powers that be, ya know?
The lentil tower was not in the cards for me that day.
I had swiss chard that I bought for dinner, but I realized that I forgot I wasn’t going to be home Thursday or Friday of this week, so it was most likely going to go bad.
I opened up my fridge, grabbed the chard and looking for inspiration, I Googled “chard salad” and came up with a Food52 recipe, featuring shredded chard. GENIUS!
I’d make a salad with shredded chard. I’d been meaning to make a tuna salad for lunch, so using that mindset, I landed on today’s recipe. Honestly, the apple noodles seal the deal here. Without the apple noodles, you wouldn’t get that crunchy, light, moist consistency or the sweetness that negates any bitterness that comes with uncooked chard.
The pecans are for the crunch and because who doesn’t love pecans with apples? Or pecans alone. Or in a house, with a mouse.. or in a box, with a fox.
Okay, if you didn’t get that Dr. Seuss reference, I’m disappointed.
Make this shredded chard and apple noodle salad for lunch or for a light dinner – it’s perfect for the summertime, as nothing’s cooked or warmed. It literally took me 10 minutes to make and leftovers for dinner were even better, as the vinaigrette sat with the chard and apples for a few hours and softened them.
I’m totally putting shredded chard somewhere in the cookbook.
How do you prefer your chard?
Nutritional Information & Recipe
Shredded Chard, Apple Noodle and Tuna Salad with Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- 6-7 large chard leaves
- 1 apple stem removed, Blade C, noodles trimmed
- ¼ cup roughly chopped pecans
- 1 5 oz can of tuna in water drained
- freshly cracked pepper to taste
- For the dressing:
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon honey
- salt and pepper to taste
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- Place all of the ingredients for the dressing into a bowl and whisk until combined. Set aside.
- Lay out the chard leaves. Cut out the thick stem and stack the leaves. Roll the stack up into a cigar and cut into thin ribbons to “shred” the chard.
- Combine the chard, apple and pecans in a large mixing bowl. Add in the dressing, saving about two teaspoons. Toss to combine fully and then divide into two plates. Top the plates equally with tuna and drizzle the remaining vinaigrette onto the tuna. Season with cracked pepper.
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