Chard salad, you're the best friend a gal could want

It is always exciting when something becomes a staple. You know how to make it without looking at instructions, you know what it's supposed to taste like in your household and you know it's got super powers that earned it a right to be part of your life forever. One such thing for me is the chard or kale salad. Originally I got the recipe from a nurse practitioner who does healing touch energy work. She can make your body relax so much that it doesn't hurt to get an IUD installed, so you know she knows some stuff about life. Her name is Jude Kehoe if you ever want to look her up and be healed in Eugene. You know your chakras need a tune-up. My version of the salad isn't quite how she told it to me, but she was certainly the inspiration. I've come up with ways to make it faster and faster, and now, it's a wonderful thing to make a big batch of at the beginning of the week then eat it different ways throughout its shelf-life.

The basic ingredients are:

chard or kale, as much as you can fit in your biggest tupperware bowl
tomatoes
1/2 red onion chopped
minced garlic
1/2 bell pepper chopped
lemon juice
braggs aminos, coconut aminos or soy sauce
red pepper flakes
salt and pepper


Rinse the chard and put it on something absorbent while you prep other ingredients. Put the liquids and seasonings in a big tupperware with a top--about a tablespoon each of the liquids and teaspoon each of the seasonings, to get you started. This will be a matter of taste.

The stems on chard is edible according to some generous people. I don't like it raw so I leave it out of this, but if you know you're going to be sauteeing or wilting in the microwave, or you like it raw (oh baby), cut those up too after cutting the big, yummy, life-giving leaves off. Shake excess moisture off, chop in big, coarse pieces and add to seasoning blend. Give a couple stirs. Add rest of veggies, put on top and shake it up. The more this is tossed, the better. You can add oil at this stage, or add when you're going to eat it, or not add it. If you add it during the marinating stage, it will wilt the chard, but it helps soften the kale so maybe that's a winning way to do kale. If you have a food dehydrator, I am jealous and you are invited to my wedding if you will give it to me. I bet this recipe would be good dehydrated.

Now, here's the fun part. This little food bundle you've created is so versatile. You can eat it plain out of the container the way I used to eat pickles when I woke up poor and lazy in the middle of college and that was the only ready-to-eat thing. You can divvy it into smaller containers and use one each time you need a veggie serving, which is every meal. You can throw a big handful on a sauteeing pan and let it wilt before dumping some scrambled egg over the top and cooking. It stays appealing for about 5 days.