Red Chard with Cashew Sauce
Remember in Elf when Will Farrell puts maple syrup on spaghetti? I’ve been there, putting maple syrup on almost anything to get my kids to eat it. It works too, although it’s not my preferred method. This sauce is one idea I’ve come up with to get my kids to eat healthy veggies without using maple syrup. The raw cashews make a delicious sweet sauce with just the right amount of salt that masks the flavor of chard really well.
I have so many tricks to get my kids to eat leafy greens. I blend them up in smoothies and eggs, I hide them in spaghetti sauce, I chop them up finely and put them in refried beans for tacos or burritos, the list goes on. But sometimes I get tired of hiding them and I do something bold…
I put them right out in the open…
on their plate in a big pile…
and actually expect them to eat it.
The trick is…BRANDING! I call red chard (my preferred leafy green) dinosaur leaves. And I cover it with this delicious cashew sauce. The combination of these two things and my kids actually eat them, sometimes without even whining!!! So when serving this to your kids be sure to call them dinosaur leaves!
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Ingredients
- 1 cup raw, unsalted cashews
- 2 Tbsp. coconut aminos (a soy sauce substitute)
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 large bunch red chard you can also use spinach, or kale
- 1/2 orange, juiced
1. Put the cashews, coconut aminos, and garlic in a bullet or blender. Fill with water, just enough to almost cover the cashews. Blend on high until smooth.
This recipe works best with raw cashews which can be hard to find if you don’t have a good natural food store nearby. I order mine in bulk from Amazon: raw cashews . If you only have salted cashews, they will work fine, it will just be a little saltier. I have a few salty soy-sauce-like things I use: coconut aminos is soy and gluten-free and has a sweeter taste to it than soy sauce (this is my personal favorite), Bragg’s liquid aminos is milder than soy sauce with less salt and it’s gluten-free and unfermented, tamari is the closest to soy sauce in flavor and easiest to find and it’s also gluten-free. You can use any of these or even soy sauce, just reduce it to 1-1/2 Tbsp.
After blending it should be about the consistency of a smoothie.
2. Wash chard, tear leafy portion off stem and discard the stems. Tear into small pieces and place in a large pot.
I REALLY, REALLY hate biting down on sand/dirt so I like to rinse the leaves while they are whole under the faucet, tear them up, and put them in the pot. Then I fill the pot with water and rinse them 1-2 more times so I am sure they are clean.
If you don’t want to waste the stems, you can chop them into 2 inch pieces and put them in the pot first, cover and cook for about 5 minutes before you add the leaves. No one else likes the stems in my house so then I end up with a bowl full of stems and no leaves…not my favorite. So I usually just throw them away.
You can substitute any type of leafy green you can find. Chard is very mild, so its easier to get my kids to eat than kale or collard greens. But spinach would work well too. My daughter just loves the deep magenta color of the red chard.
3. Squeeze juice of half an orange onto chard and toss with tongs. Place on stove top and turn heat to medium. Cook for 2-3 minutes, turning with tongs constantly until the greens are wilted and darker in color.
This is about the time when I say “Hey where did it all go?”
4. Add about half the cashew sauce, toss for 30 seconds and remove from heat.
You can serve it topped with additional sauce or some chopped cashews, whatever you think your kids will like. Use any leftover sauce on pasta (mix half and half with red sauce for a creamy twist on an old standard), or any veggie especially green beans, or asparagus.
It took some time and some bribery to get my kids used to the idea of eating leafy greens, but it can be done. And now they actually love it! Ok… love might be a strong word to use. They don’t love it like they love mac and cheese, of course, but they eat it without arguing, and in my book, that’s a win!
Here’s a few links if you need help finding the ingredients in this recipe:
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 2-3 minutes |
| Servings |
people
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- 1 cup raw, unsalted cashews
- 2 Tbsp. coconut aminos can substitute soy sauce, tamari or Bragg's liquid aminos but reduce to 1-1/2 Tbsp
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 large bunch red chard you can also use spinach, or kale
- 1/2 orange, juiced
Ingredients
|
|
- Put the cashews, coconut aminos, and garlic in a bullet or blender. Fill with water just enough to almost cover the cashews. Blend on high until smooth and about the consistency of a smoothie.
- Wash chard, tear leafy portion off stem and discard the stems. Tear into small pieces and place in a large pot.
- Squeeze juice of half an orange onto chard and toss with tongs. Place on stove top and turn heat to medium. Cook for 2-3 minutes, turning with tongs constantly until the greens are wilted and darker in color.
- Add about half the cashew sauce, toss for 30 seconds and remove from heat. Serve topped with additional sauce or chopped cashews if desired.
