Running Out of Time

So I wasn't planning on cooking anything this week since it was a typical school week, meaning that I was insanely busy. However, on Tuesday during my walk home from campus, I realized that I had some rainbow chard in my fridge and I was unsure whether it was going bad or not, which made sense since I wasn't sure how long it had been in my fridge. I checked. It was going bad. I couldn't waste perfectly good chard so I did what any self-respecting cook would do: I made it into soup.

Upon discovering my wilted chard, I recalled some italian sausage that had been in my freezer for longer than I care to admit, and I quickly decided to use these ingredients to make a version of the Portuguese dish caldo verde. Seriously guys, whenever ingredients are toeing the line between being edible and giving you food poisoning, soup is the way to go. The suspect ingredients are thoroughly cooked and it's easy to mask any less-than-fresh flavor. Now, if your food is truly rotten, don't go taking any unnecessary risks; take it from the girl who has had food poisoning multiple times (though never as a result of my own cooking). Anyway, back to the food:

I thawed out the sausage, browned it, chucked in some herbs and spices, added water, and finished it off with the chard at the very end. Now, I said before that I would share my successes as well as my failures, but this doesn't really fit into either of those categories. The soup wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. It was the sort of soup that you would be pleased with if it was free, but disappointed by if you paid more than $2.50 for it. However, it was a success in the respect that it turned my sad and forgotten chard and sausage into something that could be reasonable referred to as a meal.

Now for a picture. I will preface this image by saying that 1) I got my camera for Christmas in 2008 and it was kind of dated then so it's not the best quality, and 2) Natural light does not exist in my apartment. You know that painful feeling of walking out of a dark movie theater and being blinded by the sun light? Yeah, I get that every time I walk out of my apartment.

I know you're just dying to try some so here's the recipe (Sort of. I don't measure anything when I cook like this):

4 oz Italian sausage (aka 1/4 lb.)
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 cloves minced garlic (fresh garlic is the way to go people, but you could also substitute 1/2 tsp. garlic powder)
1/2 to 1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 to 1 can white beans
3-4 c water or chicken stock
1/2 bunch chard, washed, stems removed, and chopped or sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
Top with parmesan cheese, if desired

Brown the sausage, add the onions and cook for about 4 minutes. Add the garlic, thyme, and red pepper, and beans and cook for 30 seconds. Add water or stock. Bring to a boil and simmer for at least 15 minutes. Remove from heat and add chard. Chuck in however much salt and pepper you feel like. Serve immediately.

As a side note, don't mix in all of the chard if you're not going to eat it immediately because the chard will get mushy and gross. Conseuently, it's best to store the broth and chard separately. Just toss some in a bowl with the broth after you reheat it. 

Also, if you find that something you make is on the bland side, 90% of the time it's because it doesn't have enough salt. Salt intake is correlated with high blood pressure, but it also brings out the natural flavors in foods (hence, why you put salt into cookies and such. Makes 'em taste better). I never add more than 1/2 a teaspoon of salt to any dish at one time, and then I add more in small increments if needed. You can always add more, but you can't take it out once it's in. However, hunks of raw potato in an over-salted soup or stew will absorb some of the salt and save you from having to trash a whole meal.

Happy eating!