Beer Braised Swiss Chard with Bacon & Onions

Have you heard the urban legend that bacon makes everything taste better? You always thought it was just an exaggeration, didn't you? Well, it isn't.  It is now a confirmed fact; we received our confirmation tonight. People from craigslist were allegedly coming over tonight to pick up some of our unwanted furniture so we figured that it would be better not to be in the midst of cooking when they arrived. Turns out there was no need to worry; apparently craigslisters are unreliable was well as occasionally dangerous.

The Hubs had picked up a box of perrogies to eat for lunch last week and since they went uneaten he thought that they would be a good choice for dinner. I hadn't had perrogies since a college boyfriend's mother served me half-frozen ones when she discovered that vegetarians don't eat tuna noodle casserole. (In my defense, even non-vegetarians usually try to avoid eating tuna noodle casserole.) Given my traumatic perrogie history Mike took the lead on making tonight's perrogies.  Since perrogies have the cooking instructions on the box are straight forward to make, I'll skip over the perrogies and move on my bacon discovery.

While onions are technically a vegetable, I just couldn't bring myself to do just perrogies and onions for dinner.  So I decided to cook up the swiss chard from the farmer's market and (to make it more appealing to my man) I thought that bacon would make an excellent addition.  When cooking swiss chard a little liquid speeds up the cooking and softens the stems.  And what goes with bacon and onions? Yupper. Beer!

Beer Braised Swiss Chard with Bacon and Onions

3/4 pound swiss chard
1/2 medium onion
1/2 pound bacon
1/2 cup beer
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp all spice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
salt & pepper

Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until the bacon is very crispy.  Pull the bacon from a pan and set on paper towels to drain and cool.  Pour off the bacon grease add the olive oil to the skillet and cook the onions over medium heat until they are softened.  While the onions are softening, cut the swiss chard stems into 1" pieces and the greens into large pieces.  When the onions have softened (it will take about 6 minutes) add the swiss chard and pour in the beer.  Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 3 minutes.  Take the lid off the pan, toss the swiss chard with the onions and continue to cook until the beer has cooked off.  Add the bacon, all spice, nutmeg, and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Serve aside whatever you are having for dinner that needs at least one vegetable.
Bon Appetit!


Serves 2

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