WHB – Breakfast Acelga Squares

After a week in the Andes mountains, eating potato after potato, I had been once again craving vegetables. The very same night I returned, I visited a very busy grocery store and bought lots and lots of fruits and vegetables. I had one recipe in mind for my first morning back in Lima.

I had seen an interesting recipe on The Wednesday Chef and wondered how I could make it work here in Peru. She made a recipe for collard squares based on a recipe from Regina Schrambling. I decided to make some substitutions in the recipe with ingredients a bit more accessible here in Peru and slight changes in the preparation.

Besides the lettuce and spinach, acegla is the other green which is used frequently here in Peru. Acegla in Spanish is Swiss chard in English. It looks to me almost like a wide celery stalk with fan like leaves on both sides.

Acelga does not just taste good, it is good for you! According to World's Healthiest Foods, "If vegetables got grades for traditional nutrients alone, Swiss chard would be one of the vegetable valedictorians." Their rating system declares "excellent marks for its concentrations of vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, magnesium, manganese, potassium, iron, vitamin E, and dietary fiber."

Breakfast Acelga Squares

1 tablespoon of butter
1 teaspoon of olive oil
1 small onion, finely diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
125grams of baby portabella mushrooms, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
250grams of acelga, chopped
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup of grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup of bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. In a skillet, heat butter and olive oil. Saute onion and garlic until transparent. Add mushrooms, red pepper and salt; then cook for 3 more minutes. Add soy sauce and acelga; cooking until the acelga is wilted. Cool slightly.

3. In another bowl, mix the eggs, cheese and bread crumbs. Add the acelga mixture. Stir to combine.

4. Add acelga mixture to a square baking dish, coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes. Remove and cool slightly before serving.

Serves 3-4. From The Wednesday Chef.

Kitchen Tip: The acelga can be substituted with spinach or other leafy greens. I served my acelga squares with halved cherry tomatoes that had been sprinkled with salt and splashed with lime juice and olive oil.

These delicious breakfast acelga squares are this weeks' entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, originally created by Kalyn at Kalyn’s Kitchen and this week is hosted by (corrected 23Jan08) Anna from Anna's Cool Finds.