Rainbow Chard and Bay Scallops

I love rainbow chard. I didn't use to, but I do now.

First of all, rainbow chard is beautiful. The stems come in bright red, pink, yellow, cream, and white. When I started chopping the stems up, it was like making pastel confetti!

For this easy dish, dice and onion and begin sauteeing it over medium heat with a few gloves of garlic and one tablespoon of olive oil. Cut one carrot into arounds about a quarter inch thick and add to the onions once the onions are soft. (edit: this annoying lawyer I know insisted I point out that I did not take the photo to the left: it comes from shutterstock.com. I thought that was pretty obvious. I forgot to take pictures before I started chopping).

Remove all the leaves from the stems of one bunch of chard. Chop the stems into quarter inch sections, and turn the heat to high. Once the pan is hot, add the stems to the onions and carrots. Then, stack several leaves together and roll them tightly. Slice through this cylinder so that you cut the chard into very thin long slivers. Cut as thinly as possible. Add to the rest of the vegetables. Stir to combine, cooking until the leaves are wilted. Add a quarter cup of water, a teaspoon of salt, turn the heat down to medium, and simmer for twenty minutes or until the chard is tender. It should be quite soft, though of course the final texture should be to your preference. Chard, if not cooked enough, can be quite bitter. Cooked properly, especially with onions, it can take on a sweet flavor.

When the vegetables are ready, bring the pan back to high heat and add a handful or two of scallops. You can use bay or sea scallops, but I like to have little bay scallops sprinkled throughout this dish. Here's a shoutout to Sun Fat Seafood in the Mission--the winner of both the best value and best quality prizes for fresh seafood in San Francisco.

I cooked the bay scallops for about thirty seconds, stirring continuously. If you like slow cooked collards, this would be a good quick(er) alternative. The chard is ever so slightly bitter, which contrasts nicely with the very different types of sweetness represented by onions and high quality scallops. The garlic is very subtle, and you don't need much salt or any special herbs to make the dish fantastic. Then again, I do have awesome Farm Fresh to You vegetables

I had a cocktail with dinner tonight to reward myself for eating mostly vegetables for dinner. It wasn't really a cocktail; it was the juice of one blood orange (pulp included) and a splash of vodka and gin. It was very refreshing. It made me think that maybe a little vodka, vermouth, or white wine in the chard would have been a good idea.