One of the best things about being back in LA? The farmer’s markets.
Sure, there are a ton of open air markets in Paris, but a large chunk of the produce vendors get their fruits and vegetables from Rungis, a huge warehouse wholesale food market in the suburbs. This beautiful bundle of rainbow chard, on the other hand, was purchased at the Mar Vista Farmer’s Market, from a kindly gentleman from Jimenez Family Farm, who informed me that no pesticides were used in growing it — “We use bugs to kill bugs.”
I used the leaves in a sausage and sweet potato soup, and was left with the vibrant rainbow stalks. So I pickled them. Waste not, want not, right?
Added benefit: after a few days, the brine leeches a bit of the color out of the stalks, making the prettiest picklebacks ever.
Ingredients
- stalks from 1 bunch of rainbow chard
- 3/4 cup boiling water
- 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
- 6 tablespoons sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
Directions
- Trim the rainbow chard stalks so they will fit vertically into a pint-sized mason jar. Remove any extraneous leaf matter. Place the stalks in the jar; it should be a tight fit.
- Mix the boiling water, vinegar, sugar, and salt, and stir until the sugar and salt dissolve. Pour the mixture into the jar over the chard stalks and seal tightly. Refrigerate.
- The pickles will be ready in about four days, and will keep for about a month.