Braised Swiss Chard with Bacon and Tomatoes

During the next 2 weeks, you’ll see some guest post gems from some of my favorite bloggers around the web! Today’s guest post is by Stephanie from Naturally Mindful. Her website is a wealth of information on how to live green and healthy so you’ll definitely want to check it out! She shares great homemade recipes on how to clean naturally (she has an awesome homemade laundry detergent recipe), how to be beautiful naturally (I love her makeup remover idea), and everything else in between. You’ll even find some real food recipes like this one! Thank you, Stephanie for sharing this recipe with Primally Inspired 🙂

The following is a guest post by Stephanie from Naturally Mindful:

You might identify with a problem I had when I switched to real food; how to eat more greens—and no, it didn’t mean adding more spinach to my salad. I wanted to find ways of incorporating leafy green vegetables into my diet, but also make it as nourishing as possible.

After finding swiss chard at the farmers market last year I challenged myself to make a delicious side dish with it. Swiss chard is revered in the Mediterranean as nutritional powerhouse. It contains 13 types of polyphenol antioxidants, a type of flavonoid that aids in sugar control, vitamins A and K, and it is also a good source of magnesium…okay I thought, but it must still taste pretty bad. Here is where my dear friend bacon came to the rescue. By adding bacon (from a reputable source), bone broth (again, from a reputable source) and tomatoes you have a complete nourishing dish because the good source of fat helps you digest the vitamins found in swiss chard. This dish can be the perfect side kick to grilled salmon perfect for this time of year! I hope this dish becomes a favorite of yours as it has become one of mine!

Braised Swiss Chard with Bacon and Tomatoes

By Naturally Mindful

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 bunch of swiss chard (preferably organic and local if possible)

About 5 slices of bacon

¼ cup of bone broth (or store bought organic broth without msg)

¼ cup of chopped onions

½ cup of chopped tomatoes (1 small tomato or half of a large one)

Sea salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Wash swiss chard well and cut stems if desired, you can certainly add them but I personally like to save them along with other vegetables scraps and use them when I make borth.
Cut swiss chard into 2 inch pieces and set aside
Place bacon into a hot pan and cook bacon just before they become crispy, in batches if needed, and set aside
Remove bacon fat but leave enough to cover the whole bottom of pan and sautée onions and tomatoes, at medium high heat for about 2 minutes
Add swiss chard and sautée until wilted for about 2 minutes
Add the broth and bacon to the pan, reduce heat to medium and cooked cover for about 5 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Enjoy!

Meet Stephanie from Naturally Mindful

Stephanie Heald is a mom, a wife, and a currently a nursing student with a focus on alternative medicine. She writes at Naturally Mindful where she makes going green and healthy attainable to families getting started in the wonderful world of eco-consciousness. She believes in real food and living as natural as possible…and why not, living behind a better planet for our children.