As I mentioned yesterday, I recently picked some Swiss Chard from my garden to blanch and freeze for using in soups and such this winter.  It’s a really quick process- not unlike the process for carrots, only the chard only takes 3 minutes to steam.  The stems need to be removed, and the leaves coarsely chopped before dropping them into a steamer basket.  Three minutes later, I shocked the chopped leaves with cold water, and then spread them out on a towel to pat them dry.  Once mostly dry, I began packing the leaves into a labeled freezer bag.  And I paused at that.  These chard leaves really reminded me of chopped spinach, and taste very similar too.  At the same time, I though of the odd plethora of dairy products I had in my fridge needing to be used, and there was no getting around it.  I was going to make a hot spinach dip, only the chard would be my spinach.

You know how you’re just walking through the store and you see something you think you need?  That’s been me the last few weeks, and somehow I ended up with two tubs of grated cheese, four cartons of sour cream, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, milk about to expire, as well as a handful of other cheeses.  This dip would utilize the remains of the cottage cheese and some of the ricotta, as well as use chard, scallions and herbs from the garden.  A clove of garlic, mayo, and seasoning rounded off my collection.  The sour cream you’ll hear about later this week, as well as the milk and some garden bounty.  But back to this dip.  I already had the oven on to 400ºF for my chard stems, so I quickly set about chopping the things I needed to chop.  I plucked one scallion from the garden, as well as a few leaves of basil.  Most of the basil I lost in the frost, but there were a few towards the bottom of the stalks that were okay.  I mixed cottage cheese, Asiago, ricotta and mayo together and then added my chopped scallion, basil and clove of garlic.  A pinch of salt and a grinding of pepper went in and then the whole mixture went into the oven to bubble and bake.  Ten minutes later I gave it a stir to mix the cheese together, and sprinkled with a little more Asiago.   When it came out of the oven, it smelled absolutely heavenly.  I grabbed the first thing I saw- a box of Triscuits and dipped straight away, savoring this deliciously wicked dip.

The chard behaved just like spinach, and if I didn’t know what it was, I would have sworn it was spinach dip.  Since it was chard, I can pretend that it was almost healthy for me.  As I was nibbling away at it, it also struck me that this would have been a good candidate for smearing on a hunk of French bread and running under the broiler. It’s a good thing I didn’t have any French bread or I would have done just that.   Swiss Chard is indeed the new spinach for me, I hope I get a few more packages tucked away into the freezer for winter, because this hot dip is definitely going to be in our future again.  I also suspect that this Hot Swiss Chard Dip would be a great candidate for combining in that little dipper crock-pot and keeping warm.  I may just have to try that…

Hot Swiss Chard Dip

1/2 cup finely chopped, blanches Swiss chard leaves. (alternately, use spinach or other greens)

2/3 cup cottage cheese (I used the one with chives)

2/3 cup part skim ricotta cheese

1 scallion, chopped

2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs of choice

1/3 cup grated Asiago cheese

1 garlic clove, minced

1/3 cup mayonnaise

salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon Asiago cheese

Preheat oven to 400ºF.  Combine all the ingredients except 1 tablespoon Asiago in a small baking dish, mixing well.  Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.  Give the whole mixture a stir, it should be nice and melty and gooey.  Sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of Asiago over the top of the dip, place back in the oven for another 10 minutes, or until the Asiago is nicely golden browned.

Serve hot with crackers, veggies, or hunks of bread for dipping in.  Alternately, spread it on crostini.