Anyone who knows me personally is aware of my struggle with chicken. Maybe it's too many videos and articles that have educated me on how poorly chicken is harvested in the U.S. but, I am constantly off chicken. The catch (because there always is one) is that I do love to make it at home. Buying a whole bird or pieces that have been locally sourced and bringing it home makes for a favorite moment in my kitchen. During the past few weeks of more overall healthful dishes chicken has begun to star in some moments. I prepared a harvest salad of lentils, Swiss chard and delicata squash with a piece of roasted chicken breast on top. The dish was better than I could have hoped for and I will try to not create the same thing every night for the next week. The recipe for the salad is below and perfect on its own. Prepare chicken, beef or a slice of pork if you desire.
1 cup of lentils (I used a blend to create a harvest look)
1 cup of Swiss chard clean, pulled off stem and torn into pieces
1/4 cup of olive oil (plus more for garnish)
The juice and zest from one lemon
One delecata squash roasted -see note below
Salt and pepper to taste
*follow the link to learn how to prepare delicata squash for this dish
Fill a saucepan with rinsed lentils and fill with water till lentils are covered about a quarter of an inch. Bring the pot to a boil, stir and reduce to a lower simmer for a two minutes. Stir again, turn off the heat and place a lid on top. The lentils will continue to cook for about 15 minutes.
While the lentils finish bring the olive oil to a medium heat. Add Swiss chard and toss. The chard will wilt while it cooks, reduce temperature to low until completely wilted then leave in pan and turn off heat.
If there is any remaining liquid in the lentils drain and then add to the chard. Toss till coated adding the lemon juice and zest. Place in serving dish and garnish with delicata squash, olive oil, salt and pepper.
