Greens are better with bacon

Running uphill is not fun. It's worse than normal running. But I keep forcing myself to join the people-who-like-to-run-that's-so-weird on weekends for hill running and stair climbing, on the slim chance that it makes the flat running seem less horrendous. It might just be plain old torture, but either way my calves will look fabulous!

But you know what makes running better and most certainly improves swiss chard? Bacon. The other day I realized, as I often do, that I forgot to take meat out of the freezer to thaw. It was suggested I have bacon. I didn't feel like eggs, and I had some fresh swiss chard from Nick's house, so I made this instead.

 

It was awesome.

I've made versions of this before (chard with bacon and potatoes, chard with apples) but with this particular iteration I do think I trumped myself. It's because I put the apples and the bacon together, and added cider vinegar to cover up the lameness of greens. I was just about to write something about the balance on the palette of the sweet, salt, and acid but I stopped myself because who the heck says that? Someone who's been watching too much Masterchef, that's who.

Apple Bacon Swiss Chard

Ingredients

• 1 head swiss chard of any colour
• 1 apple, chopped
• 1 package bacon
• ~2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• garlic powder to taste

1. chop your bacon roughly into 1 inch pieces. This is actually a bit easier if your bacon is still slightly frozen
2. Cook your bacon! To the crispiness of your preference. I personally like my bacon nearly carcinogenic. Floppy bacon is just disgusting.
3. While the bacon is cooking, peel and chop your apple and prepare the chard. I chop up the stems like celery, and tear up the leaves into bite-sized pieces.
4. Set the bacon aside and drain some of the fat, leaving enough to cook your greens in.
5. Toss the apple into the pan and saute for a couple of minutes (and garlic too if you like). Rinse the chard in a strainer and add to the pan without drying completely (so the chard has some water to steam in). I added a bit of garlic powder here. The bacon was salty enough that it didn't need more salt.
6. Add the vinegar and stir the chard until it cooks down enough to put a lid on it.
7. Let it steam, stirring occasionally, until the chard stems are your desired tenderness. If it looks too soggy leave the lid off. I find the time differs depending on the freshness of the chard, how much stem there was, etc., but I saute it for around 10 minutes. Do lots of taste tests because that's a guesstimate!
8. Once cooked, top it all with the bacon and enjoy!

For the record, yes, I ate half a package of bacon for dinner, and the other half for lunch the next day. I am not ashamed.