In my younger days, silverbeet or Swiss chard, was a regular feature on the menu. Not quite Popeye's favourite but not too far away either. Mum, in common with a lot of other people, would chop off the white stalk part and consign them ignominiously to the bin. She loved silverbeet and it was one of the vegetables that had to be grown in my vegetable plot, which was no fuss as it's so easy to grow. Her favourite way was to simply rinse the leaves in water and pop them straight into a hot pot, just like that, completely unardorned. After a minute or so the leaves would collapse and shrink right down and that was it, they were ready. Often we would find silverbeet leaves popping up in the most unexpected places, like mum's fried rice.

Fast forward a few years and imagine my surprise when reading a cookbook that said you could eat the silverbeet stalks! We had been throwing them away for years and years, but now no more. I'm not sure that my wife D knew the stalks were good, for I bought a bunch of silverbeet, but only wanted the leaves for a certain dish, so I chopped off the stalks and saved them in the vegetable crisper, where they languished for quite some time, until last night, when looking for a vegetable to cook, I chanced upon them.

That's the great thing about silverbeet, one bunch yields either one or two dishes and the possibilities to prepare it are endless. I was in a cooking mood and the thought also occurred to me that this would be an opportunity to enter Kalyn's Kitchen Weekend Herb Blogging. I'm going to present two dishes from the one bunch, one using the leaves, the other the stalks. Both dishes seem to be South Beach diet friendly, but maybe Kalyn could suggest something carb like to make it the complete vegetarian meal.

Piquant Silverbeet

1 bunch silverbeet leaves - no stalk
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 small chile, finely chopped
1/2 tablespoon capers
optional - 1 0r 2 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
salt & fresh ground pepper

Rinse the silverbeet in cold water to remove any dirt, don't dry and roughly chop. Warm the olive oil in a pot large enough to hold all the silverbeet. Add the garlic, chile, capers and anchovy if using and warm for two minutes, don't fry. Raise the heat to high and add the still wet silverbeet, stir to coat with the oil. Place the lid on the pot and continue to cook on high heat for two or three minutes, or until the leaves collapse. Season and serve.

Braised Silverbeet Stalks

Stalks from 1 bunch silverbeet
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 400 g (1 lb) tin crushed tomatoes
4 stalks thyme, tied
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
salt & fresh ground pepper

Chop the silverbeet stalks into 1 cm (1/4") pieces across. Sweat the onion in the olive oil until soft, then add the silverbeet stalks and the garlic and cook 2 minutes more. Add the crushed tomatoes and thyme, bring to the boil and simmer for fifteen minutes or until tender but still with some crunch. Add the parsley and season. Serve.