I love this time of year. Sunny yellow daffodils are popping up everywhere and the first locally grown, leafy-green vegetables are appearing in the shops.
The world seems to be throwing itself headlong into spring with such enthusiasm that even Edinburgh has had a handful of days so sunny and warm that we’ve been outside until dusk – walking along the canal, eating ice cream, savouring the longer evenings.
Chard is one of my favourite vegetables that appear at this time of year. It’s a bit of an unsung hero – a more complex cousin of spinach that gives you two for the price of one: sweet, tender stems and iron-rich green leaves. The slight bitterness of the leaves can put some people off, but they’re delicious mellowed with a sweet tahini sauce in this super quick and simple, warm salad.
To make more of a meal of this, cook some large pasta shells and toss everything together with the sauce and a little pasta water.
Serves 2
Preheat the oven to 200C. Break the bread into chunks and blitz in a food processor until you get coarse crumbs. Zest half of the lemon and mix with the crumbs, a little salt and 1 tbs of olive oil. Spread out on a baking tray and bake for around 7 minutes, until crispy and brown.
To make the sauce, crush half of one garlic clove and mix with the tahini, 20ml of juice from the lemon and 25ml of cold water – or enough until it loosens up and is the consistency of double cream. Set aside.
To prepare the chard, cut the stalks out from the leaves. Rinse, trim and chop the stalks into 2cm chunks. Wash the leaves, shake them to get rid of excess water and then roll them up together and shred them finely.
Thinly slice the remaining two and a half garlic cloves. Heat 1 tbs of olive oil in a saucepan over a low-to-medium heat and fry the garlic gently for a couple of minutes. Add the stalks of the chard, a little salt and cook for 5 to 10 minutes more, stirring frequently, until soft. Add the chickpeas and shredded chard leaves to the pan and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until everything is warmed through and the leaves are just beginning to wilt.
Remove the pan from the heat. Add the chopped coriander, 20ml of lemon juice and the yoghurt – if using – then season to taste. Serve the chickpeas and chard smothered with tahini sauce and topped with the crispy breadcrumbs.