Swiss Chard Fritters & Beet Yogurt Dip
Sometimes I come across a recipe that I know I must make at some point, even if I don’t know exactly when that might be. I file it away – either mentally or physically – to be pulled out at just the right time. Often these stow-away recipes get lost or forgotten, but I knew as soon as I first saw this recipe that it wasn’t destined for that fate!
Swiss chard is one of my favorite leafy greens. It is sturdy yet delicately flavored – with a subtle sweetness – and it is beautiful to boot. I think it’s perfect when simply sautéed (both stems and leaves) in some olive oil with salt, pepper, and garlic. But the recipe we used here puts this delicious green to use in a more complex but no less delicious way. The stems get trimmed, the leaves get blanched, and then they’re chopped in the food processor with a few other ingredients to create a batter into which chunks of feta cheese are folded. After a quick couple of minutes in the frying pan, the green, herbaceous, feta-flecked batter becomes a delicious, light, and fairly healthy little fritter.
The fritters are just fine on their own, sprinkled with a bit of coarse salt, but they are the perfect vehicle for the beet yogurt dip that goes alongside. The dip is strikingly beautiful – a seemingly unnatural fuschia-like color thanks to the combination of roasted red beets and plain yogurt - and it is strikingly delicious, thanks to the addition of a few other bold and tasty ingredients.
OurHarvest Tasty Tip: Roasting and then peeling the beets is the most time-consuming part of both recipes, so it’s definitely the best place to begin. The rest of the prep work can be done while the beets are roasting. Just be sure to have the dip fully prepared before you start to fry the fritters - you’ll want to start dipping those babies as soon as they come out of the pan!
And when the fritters disappear, and there’s still some dip left to be eaten, you’ll be reaching for just about anything - from pretzels to carrots to radishes to chicken breasts - to dip into this delicious pink concoction.
Beet Yogurt Dip
Adapted from NYTimes (Melissa Clark)
Ingredients:
- 2 medium beets, scrubbed and trimmed
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for beets
- 45 grams walnuts (about ½ cup)
- 1 very large clove garlic, minced
- 3 grams kosher salt (1 teaspoon), more to taste
- 1 cup Sohha yogurt
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice, more to taste
- 2 teaspoons chopped dill
- 1 ½ teaspoons prepared horseradish
Directions:
To roast beets, heat oven to 375 degrees. Place beets in a small baking dish and drizzle with olive oil. Add 3 tablespoons water to bottom of dish and cover tightly with foil. Bake until tender, about 1-1.5 hours, turning beets after 45 minutes. Let cool, then peel.
Using a food processor, grind walnuts, garlic, and salt until very finely ground. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add the peeled beets, oil, yogurt, lemon juice, dill, and horseradish and pulse until relatively smooth. Taste for seasoning and add more lemon or salt, or both, if needed. Serve with fritters or use as a dip for vegetables.
Swiss Chard Fritters
Adapted from NYTimes (Melissa Clark) & “Jerusalem” (Ottolenghi and Tamimi)
Ingredients:
- 2 bunches Swiss chard (leaves only, stems removed)
- ½ cup chopped Italian parsley
- ¼ cup chopped dill
- 1 ½ teaspoons grated nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 large eggs
- 3 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (about ½ cup)
- Olive oil
- Lemon wedges
Directions:
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add chard leaves, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from pot and drain well, wringing leaves dry in paper or kitchen towel.
- Place chard in food process with herbs, nutmeg, sugar, flour, garlic, and eggs. Pulse until well blended. Fold in crumbled feta by hand.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, spoon in 1 heaping tablespoon of mixture for each fritter. Press down gently on fritter to flatten. Cook 1-2 mins per side, until golden brown. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels. Add another tablespoon of oil to pan and repeat. Serve warm, with lemon wedges.
