And I don’t like chard . . .

A young friend who’s working harder than any human bean should have to, says clients buying her family farm’s CSA subscriptions often ask what to do with chard.

You can cook it like fresh spinach or you can take a couple of extra steps to fix this Lebanese Swiss chard from therecipehunters.com. It may seem a little complicated, but once you’ve made it, you shouldn’t have to look at the directions again.

The recipe calls for cilantro — I had fresh parsley — and for pinto beans.  I used canary beans which I thought would be yellow but were white. Also, I have no idea how big “a bunch” of chard is. Mine came from the garden so I used an amount comparable to the amount of spinach I’d cook for the two of us.

Josephine’s Lebanese Swiss chard

1 medium-sized onion, chopped

2 bunches of Swiss chard

1 bunch of cilantro, minced

7-8 ounces of canned beans (pinto, cannellini, etc.)

5 garlic cloves

Juice from 1 lemon

Olive oil

Salt

Rinse and drain the beans. You’re probably using 1/2 the contents of a 15-ounce can so refrigerate the remainder and save for burritos or salad.

Wash the chard and chop into 1-inch pieces (small). Put in pot of boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain.

In large skillet or the pot in which you cooked the chard, add 1/4 cup olive oil and heat pan. Fry onions and then the garlic cloves which you’ve mashed using a mortar and pestle with 1 teaspoon salt. When onions are translucent, add garlic and as soon as you smell the garlic cooking, add cilantro (or parsley). Stir.

Squeeze the cooked chard in paper towels to get rid of excess moisture. Add chard and rinsed beans to sauce. Toss. Drizzle with lemon juice and more olive oil.

It occurs to me now that I halved all the ingredients in this first batch except the garlic. And I like it like this. So maybe if you use two full “bunches,” you’ll want to up the garlic!