Rainbow Chard Parmesan Tart and Celery Gratin So Rich You Won’t Miss the Meat

Presentation is important when creating a Meatless Monday menu. (Photo: Josie’s Organic)

Committing to Meatless Mondays can be intimidating, especially for home cooks whose families are used to meat in the starring role. Most of us just don’t have enough vegetable recipe ideas – outside of pasta dishes or a few soup/salad combos – to create the variety of complete meatless meals that will satisfy the whole family.

Chadwick Boyd is out to help. An accomplished chef who has consulted on 14 cookbooks over the years, Boyd is set to release his first solo effort, “Entertaining With Vegetables,” next spring. The book focuses on using imaginative combinations of familiar ingredients to create attractive, tasty vegetable-based dishes that can add up to a main course or shine as a trusty side or impressive appetizer.

“I’ve come to realize that vegetables really present a great opportunity to create new dishes. Simplicity, color, flavor and convenience is built into each one,” said Boyd, who tries to create each recipe around the time constraints of busy, working parents. “You can put a few things in a pan and let them go for however long they take to cook. It’s super easy and there’s not a lot of prep time involved.”

Boyd offered this Rainbow Chard Parmesan Tart and Celery Gruyere Gratin for his final Meatless Monday contributions. The Sriracha ginger cauliflower and roasted broccoli, poblano and pinto bean tacos with lime cream from his previous contributions are also worth exploring.

Besides flavor, Boyd also focuses on presentation, which is important when trying to lure carnivores or finicky eaters to a vegetarian meal. “We eat with our eyes first,” he said. “If it looks appealing, we’ll want to eat it.”

With the tart, you can use red, green, white, or rainbow chard to liven up a party table, when serving as a pizza-type appetizer, or as a bright addition to the main meal. Boyd likes to think of this tart as an open canvass that can easily take extra ingredients, such as fresh ricotta, caramelized shallots or mushrooms. Let the kids help make them. This tart might look sophisticated but it only takes about 30 minutes to make.

For most of his vegetarian recipes, Boyd suggests using as much of the vegetable – stalk, leaves, stems – whenever possible. “Using the whole vegetable opens ups the home cook’s eyes,” he said. “They start seeing vegetables in a new way.

Boyd created the celery gratin as a winter holiday dish. It was such a hit he decided to lighten it up for warmer months by reducing the amount of cheese and adding white wine for extra flavor. He suggests pairing it with grilled chicken, pork or fish … except on Meatless Monday.

“A lot of people tend to think there’s something missing when there’s no meat on the plate, but there really isn’t,” he said. “It just takes a shift in mindset.

Celery Gruyere Gratin
Serves 6

1 bunch of celery
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small sweet onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, plus a few sprigs for garnish
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup vegetable stock
⅓ cup white wine
½ cup Gruyere cheese, micro planed (more if desired)
Kosher salt and fresh black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400°. Remove leaves from celery, wash leaves and place in a small bowl of ice water. Finely chop one rib of celery and place in the ice water with the leaves. Set aside.

Trim ends of remaining ribs of celery and peel the outer strings with a vegetable peeler. Cut ribs into 3-4 inch pieces.

Heat a large skillet on medium-high. Add olive oil and butter, allowing butter to melt slightly. Stir in garlic and onion and cook until softened, about five minutes. Place celery pieces in the pan and pour the stock over them. Add salt and thyme leaves. Bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium and let simmer uncovered for 15-20 minutes until the celery is just tender (use a knife to test).
Transfer ingredients to a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Pour the wine over the celery and sprinkle Gruyere evenly on top. Season with kosher salt and pepper; garnish with sprigs of thyme.

Bake, uncovered, for 12-15 minutes until wine is reduced and cheese is golden and bubbly.

Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes. Remove reserved celery bits and leaves from water, pat dry and scatter on top.

Rainbow Chard Parmesan Tart (photo above)
Serves 8

1 puff pastry, thawed
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 small shallot, finely chopped
6-8 stalks and leaves rainbow chard, washed and dried, stems evened up
1 cup vegetable broth
2 tablespoons grated parmesan
Kosher salt and fresh black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 °F. Unfold pastry dough onto a lightly oiled baking sheet. Heat three tablespoons of olive oil in a large 12-inch skillet on medium high heat. Add the shallots. Let soften, about five minutes. Lay the chard gently into the skillet. Add the chicken broth. Cover. Cook for five minutes until the stalks are tender with a fork. Remove from heat.

Brush the pastry dough evenly with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Carefully arrange the chard lengthwise on the pastry dough, alternating the different colored stalks. Top with any remaining juice and shallots in the pan. Evenly dust with Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper. Bake for 25 minutes until golden and bubbly, turning the baking sheet once halfway through. Let rest for five minutes on a cutting board.

Let your kids help you cook. Here are some simple strategies:

Kids can make the pie … and many other dishes

Young chefs take over breakfast

Smart tips for feeding picky kids

Have a Meatless Monday recipe? Fill us in.