Gruyere Bacon and Chard Quiche With Green Beans and Turnip Puree

The day started with topping off beets, and ended with picking edible flowers at my local farm in Cameron, North Carolina. Somewhere in between, I harvested the green beans you see in the picture with four other women, and it took us over an hour to go through the whole row of green beans.

When I was working as a personal chef in Manhattan, I would order ingredients straight to the client's home using Fresh Direct. Now that I live in Moore County, I am within close driving distance of a vast number of farms which means that I can pick produce to cook with in the same day. The experience showed me how much care and dedication goes into growing organic vegetables.

We loose something very special with the convenience that the food industry provides. The process of cooking with local food is more expensive and time consuming, but its payoff is an immeasurable cascade of benefits to physical and mental health. It's a modern day luxury to be able to use one's time to harvest your own fresh fruits and vegetables. I hope there is a future where all people regardless of where they live, can learn how food is grown and have the chance to grow their own.

If you witness the work that goes into growing, you get to see everyone and everything that plays a role in the process. You won't be surprised when it becomes hard to throw out food, and when your plate looks less like a given and more like an everyday miracle.

Recipe

Ingredients

Quiche With Gruyere, Rainbow Chard, and Bacon

Crust

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

2 1/4 cups unsalted butter

1/2 cup ice water

Quiche

5 eggs

1 1/4 cups half and half

1/2 chopped onion

2 cups chopped de-stemmed rainbow chard

7 slices of bacon, chopped

1 1/4 cups gruyere, swiss, mozzarella cheese, cheddar or monterrey jack

Optional: Reserve 1/4 cup of cheese to top off the quiche before baking

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Green Beans With Red Onion

Small bushel of green beans

1/4 cup flour

2 tbs olive oil

1 tbs honey

Juice and zest of a lemon

3 garlic cloves

1 onion sliced thinly

Garlic powder

Salt

Pepper

Pickled Rainbow Chard Stems

Stems from the rainbow chard that went into the quiche

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1 cup water

1 tbs honey

1 tsp salt

Turnip Puree

2-3 cups turnips

Juice of half an orange

Zest of half an orange

1/4 cup olive oil

Knob of grass fed butter

Dash of salt

Directions

Quiche With Gruyere, Rainbow Chard, and Bacon

Crust

1. Mix the dry ingredients together with a whisk and set aside. Add ice cubes to a cup of water.

2. Use your preferred method of cutting the butter into the flour mixture. You can use a cheese grater to create small pieces of butter quickly, or you can cut the butter into small pieces and then use a pastry blender to incorporate the butter into the flour. Once you have a mixture that looks course and well incorporated, with small chunks of butter remaining, add a 1/4 cup of water.

3. With your hands, shape the dough into a ball and divide it in half. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

4. Then take one dough disk and roll out using a rolling pin very thinly on a floured surface. You can save the other disk for another recipe or freeze it. You don't want it so thin that it is see through, though.

5. Butter or spray your pie pan and lay the dough over it gently. Then press the dough into the pan, filling in any gaps of air. Trip the excess dough falling off the sides with a sharp knife to get clean edges.

Quiche

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F.

2. Start by cooking your chopped up bacon in a pan until crispy. While that's cooking, add your eggs, half and half, salt, and pepper to a bowl and whisk well. Remove the stems from the rainbow chard using a paring knife, setting it aside for later, and then chop up the rest finely. Once the bacon is cooked, put it on paper towels to drain. Remove the excess oil from the pan, and then add the chopped up chard to sauté it in the same pan with the chopped onion. Let it cool.

3. Fit the pie crust with parchment and lay over pie weights. This could be dry beans or rice, as long as you do a good job at keeping it all contained. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove from the oven, discard the pie weights, and prick the bottom with a fork about seven or eight times.

4. Now, add the bacon, sautéed chard, and shredded cheese to the bottom in that order. Pour the egg mixture on top.

5. Lower the temperature of the oven to 350 F and bake the quiche for 40-45 minutes

Green Beans With Red Onion and Pickled Rainbow Chard Stems

Green Beans

1. Preheat your oven or air fryer to 400 F. Set a pot of water to boil at the stove. Add a teaspoon of salt to the water. Prepare an ice bath in a large bowl for the green beans. Once boiling, add the trimmed green beans and cook for 2 minutes, before straining and drenching in the cold water.

2. Meanwhile, coat the onions in flour, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Toss them on to a sheet pan lined with tin foil and coated with some olive oil. Bake until crispy and golden—about 10-15 minutes.

3. Next, start to fry the garlic in a saucepan with olive oil and add in your green beans once it begins to smell fragrant. After a couple minutes of cooking, add lemon juice, zest, salt, pepper, and honey, moving everything around to coat well. Once the green beans have blistered slightly, you are done cooking.

Pickled Chard Stems

1. Add water, vinegar, salt, and honey to a small pot to boil.

2. Thinly julienne the rainbow chard stems.

3. Once the mixture reaches boiling point, remove from heat, and toss in the stems.

4. Allow to sit for at least 20 minutes before serving. Store in a mason jar or other glass storage container for later use in the refrigerator.

Turnip Puree

1. Fill a large pot with water and allow it to boil over high heat. Add the turnips to the boiling water and boil for 10-15 minutes or until they are soft and tender when punctured with a fork.

2. Add them to a blender along with the orange juice, zest, olive oil, butter, and salt. To make a looser puree, you can add water or broth until you get the desired consistency.

3. Blend until smooth and there are no pieces.