swiss chard strudel

Always on the lookout to incorporate veggies into meals, I stumbled upon a lovely strudel recipe on the cookstr website.  It helped that I recently found some phyllo buried in the deep freezer. Butter, as always, helps too.

I always feel painterly when I do this.

If you're thinking, "WHOA! That's quite a bit of chard!"

you're right.  The chard was busting out the seams,

 and I had to take some out in order to roll it into itself.

Delicious results for moderate effort.  

It was served with steak and potatoes.

Swiss Chard Strudel
by Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso

1 bunch Swiss chard
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
½ cup shredded Jarlsberg cheese
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons dried bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
6 sheets phyllo dough (about 16x12 inches each), thawed if frozen

Preheat the oven to 375ºF.

Rinse and drain the chard.  (I did mine several times; it was quite sandy.) Remove the stems, trim and discard the woody bottoms.  Chop the rest and set aside. Coarsely chop the leaves.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a skillet over low heat.  Add the onion and sauté until wilted, about 5 minutes.  Add the chard stems and cook 3 minutes.  Add the chard leaves and cook another 3 minutes. Drain off the excess liquid, and transfer the mixture to a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.  Stir in the Jarlsberg, 1 tablespoon of the crumbs and the Parmesan.  Set aside.

Stir the butter and remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil together in a small bowl.

Open 1 sheet of phyllo dough on a work surface.  Brush it with some of the butter/oil mixture.  Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon bread crumbs.

Repeat with 4 more sheets of dough, brushing each with butter and oil and sprinkling with bread crumbs.   Top with the remaining sheet and brush with butter/oil mixture.

Spoon the filling along one short end of the phyllo, leaving about 1½ inches empty on each side.  Fold the long sides in, overlapping the filling by 1½ inches, to enclose the ends of the filling.

Roll the phyllo and filling over and onto itself to form a strudel roll.  Place it on a baking sheet seam side down and brush with any remaining butter/oil mixture.  Bake until deep golden, about 25 minutes.  Let stand for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.