Fall Flavor- Lentil and Swiss Chard Soup

The weather is finally cooling off here and it has been so lovely. It's making me want to do lots of fall cooking, which makes me think of pumpkin, apples, comfy casseroles, and hearty soups. When I'm in the mood for cooking I like to take a look back through my past issues of Everyday Food. This weekend I pulled out all my October issues and did some perusing. I saw this soup recipe and thought I'd give it a go. It came out pretty well, and I'm definitely looking forward to trying more new soups this season.

Lentil and Swiss Chard Soup
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 4

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for serving
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup lentils, picked over and rinsed
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
2 bunches Swiss chard, stalks cut crosswise into 1" pieces, leaves torn into 2" pieces, kept separate
Coarse salt and ground pepper
Juice of 1/2 lemon

• In a large saucepan with a lid, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until softened and browned, 3-5 minutes. Add tomato poaste, oregano, and thyme; stir to combine.
• Add lentils, 5 cups of water, and tomatoes with their juice; bring to a coil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, 20 minutes. Add chard, stalks and cook until beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Add chard leaves; season with salt and pepper, and cook until lentils and chard are tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
• Stir in lemon juice; ladle into bowls. Drizzle with olive oil and serve with bread, if desired.

My notes: I totally forgot about the lemon juice at the end. I was also prepping some veggies for the week and taking peeks at "Glee" while I was cooking, so it just slipped my mind. This soup tasted good without it, although it could use a little bit more kick. Not sure if the lemon juice would do it for me though. Made a batch of cornbread to go with it.

Lemony Swiss Chard

I've got a lot on my plate lately, it's just not always something I've cooked. We've decided I'm going to, hopefully, be enrolling in school for the fall and I've got a lot of things to take care of to make that happen. I'm still cooking, just relying more on old standby recipes, which means not so much to share. I did try Rainbow Chard for the first time last week as a really simple side dish. I served it with some Mushroom Risotto and a salad. It was delicious, although I over-salted a little bit. Still trying to figure out how I'm going to keep feeding us healthy home-cooked meals when I'm going to be busier than ever with school work, house work, and work work. That's a lot of work!

Lemony Swiss Chard
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 2















1 tablespoon olive oil
1 bunch Swiss chard (about 3/4 pound), stalks cut into 1-inch pieces and leaves roughly torn (keep separate)
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 to 3 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

• In a large skillet, heat oil over medium. Add chard stalks, and cook, tossing until crisp-tender, 4 to 6 minutes. Add as many chard leaves to skillet as will fit, adding more as room becomes available; season with salt and pepper. Cook, tossing occasionally, until stalks are tender, 4 to 6 minutes more.
• Drain and discard any liquid from chard in skillet; stir in lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper.

My notes: I made this with a bunch of Rainbow Chard. Same great taste, but more colorful! It's so nice to find dishes meant to serve 2, too.

Sauteed Escarole

It would seem that I've been working under another theme recently, although it wasn't quite as intentional as Harvest Month in November. You may have noticed that I'm on a bit of a greens kick. I guess the bug to try new things is still biting me, and the start to new year has had me thinking about trying to eat healthier and more seasonally. I am actually finding that to be a bit difficult, considering I've grown up in a world where tomatoes are always in the supermarket, be it spring, summer, winter or fall. But I am trying, and after reading about greens in one of my recent Everyday Food issues I decided I should put a little focus on them. So, this is the third recipe I've tried recently involving greens, the other two being posted below. I'd say this one was the simplest, although none of them have been terribly difficult, but it has also been the most delicious. I'd definitely make this recipe again, and it's nice to have more side ideas for the winter time to help balance that yearning for heartier foods in the cold weather. I served this with some grilled fish and rosemary roasted potatoes.

Sauteed Escarole
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 4














2 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
2 small heads escarole (about 1 pound total), trimmed, leaves torn and washed well
coarse salt

• In a large skillet, heat oil over medium. Add garlic, and cook until fragrant and lightly golden, about 3 minutes. Stir in escarole; season with salt. Cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 10 minutes.

My notes: Simple enough, right? I used one medium sized head to make two servings for our dinner. This would probably be quite good with a squeeze of lemon juice too, but I marinated my fish in lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and pepper for a nice complimentary flavor.

Fettuccine with Mustard Greens

Again guys, sorry about the longer time between posts. I've been trying to make sure I get something up at the start of the week, but I seemed incapable of remembering to upload my recipe pics. Finally accomplished that last night so I can share something new! Here's another recipe that had been on my to-cook list for quite some time. I found the recipe on Everybody Likes Sandwiches, and she got it from the long gone and sorely missed Poco-Cocoa blog *EDIT*: I'm a super dummy and just found out that Crystal started blogging again, and not that long after she had actually stopped. At least I know now and can pillage through her recipes once again!* It seemed like a really nice simple recipe for a weeknight (which it was), and an opportunity to cook with a new-to-me ingredient, mustard greens. So, it made the jump from "to-cook" to "eaten" status. I served it with a salad and some roasted carrots.

Fettuccine with Mustard Greens
Recipe from Everybody Likes Sandwiches; Serves 4














250g fettuccine
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 lb mustard greens, washed & trimmed
3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated
pepper

• Prepare pasta according to package directions. Make sure to salt the water because that's the only salt you'll find in this recipe.
• In a large skillet, heat up olive oil and butter. Add garlic and saute until fragrant and slightly golden. Add mustard greens, tearing them into bite sized pieces. Saute until bright green. Add drained pasta to skillet along with the lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of Parmesan and a few grinds of fresh pepper. Toss and serve with remaining Parmesan cheese.

My notes: I wanted to use whole wheat pasta and there wasn't any whole wheat fettuccine at the store when doing my shopping, so I grabbed some linguine instead. And as you can tell, I may have added a little more cheese than was called for on top. ;) Fresh Parmesan, can you blame me?