An unusual combination of Swiss Chard stalks with tahini sauce to produce a light tasty starter, suitable for vegans, vegetarians and meat eaters. The secret of preparing this dish lies in not overcooking the stalks, this is where you have to be careful. Contrary to what you might think, there is no wastage because the Swiss Chard leaves could be used for making soup (Swiss Chard Soup is included in Soups), or as filling in the savoury pastries (Swiss Chard Turnovers).

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

• 600 g / 1lb 2¼oz Swiss Chard thoroughly washed. Cut off the stalks, keeping the leaves for soup, wash thoroughly. This makes about 140 g / 4¾oz of stalks suitable for the salad.
• 100 ml / 3½ fl oz of tahini sauce (see recipe in Sauces).
• 1 tbsp of chopped fresh parsley for garnish.
• 1 tbsp pine nuts and a little olive oil to fry them (optional).
• Seasoning: Salt and freshly milled black pepper.

Method

1. Prepare the tahini sauce as described in Sauces.
2. Fill a small pan with enough water to cover the stalks, add some salt and bring to boil, meanwhile cut up the Swiss Chard stalks to 2 – 3cm / 1 – 1¼ inch pieces and if the stalks are tough, pull off the stringy fibrous material and discard. Drop them in the boiling water, reduce the heat and simmer for 5 – 7minutes, checking the texture with a fork. The idea is to get them cooked while holding their shape without becoming mushy. Drain them and if necessary put them on a kitchen paper to absorb the extra moisture because we want them to absorb the flavour of the tahini sauce. Let them cool slightly.
3. Transfer to a serving dish, add the sauce and mix gently but thoroughly, season and taste, adjust if necessary. Scatter the chopped parsley all over and serve with Arabic bread.
4. If using pine nuts, just before serving, heat up 1 tsp of olive oil in a small frying pan throw in the pine nuts, sauté until golden brown, then sprinkle the pine nuts all over the dish and serve at once.