Salmon, Turnips, & Chard...oh my!

Okay, so it doesn’t really sound that inviting I guess! But, wow! Was it good!

I recently signed us up for Farm Fresh Produce, a local organic farm delivery service. You can choose to “opt out” of any of the vegetables or fruit available if it’s something you don’t like. I decided that we’d try everything at least once, except beets. We grew those when I was a kid &I know I don’t like them!

Last Thursday was our first delivery. Our box was chock full of fresh fruits & veggies! Artichokes, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, pears, apples, oranges, celery, lettuce, turnips, and red chard. Oh my!

I've never had turnips or chard (well, not that I know of) so I thought, here goes nothing!

So tonight we had the BEST dinner: salmon, turnip au gratin, and spicy swiss chard.

I found this great recipe for Turnip-Parsnip Gratin in Cooking Light last November. I even tore it out, because I knew I wanted to someday try it. I didn't have parsnips, so I used some white potatoes instead. My tip: don't pre-cook the turnips! I think they'd be fine just sliced & baked. I pre-cooked mine & they got a bit mushy. Also, I didn't do individual gratins; just all in the 9x13 together.

We had the gratin last night with london broil, and the leftovers were just as fantastic tonight with the salmon & chard.

On to the chard recipe...I grew up eating beet greens & spinach that my mom would boil & I'd add red wine vinegar too. I know, it sounds so gross! But my mom doesn't like greens & my dad isn't exactly gourmet. So when I got the chard I knew I'd mostly likely like it, but I wanted to try something different. I searched "chard" on the Cooking Light magazine website & found Spicy Swiss Chard with Lemon. Delish! I would totally make this again. Great with the salmon. My two big kids tried it & my husband even ate it!

And lastly, my salmon. No real recipe, just how I cook it:

1) coat your saute pan with olive oil
2) put enough slices of onion in the pan to keep the salmon from touching or it will stick (the salmon)
3) put your salmon on top of the onions
4) sprinkle the fish with kosher salt, black pepper, lemon juice, & garlic
5) cover the pan & cook on medium until the fish flakes, approximately 15 minutes

* I buy half a salmon usually, & cut it skin-side down into 3" wide pieces

Enjoy! Oh, and the cute St. Patrick's placemats were made by my mom :)