Warm Christmas Salad

I needed a side dish for our Christmas dinner that would allow me to use many of the leafy green vegetables from our CSA this week. In my Moosewood Cookbook, I found and adapted this recipe for Warm Salad. I chopped all of the vegetables the night before and stored them in the refrigerator so all I had to do was cook everything together. This recipe made a huge amount of salad. It was enough for the eight adults at our dinner with plenty of left overs!

Warm Salad

1 bunch Swiss Chard chopped (from CSA)
1 bunch Sugarloaf (aka Castel Franc0 Chicory) chopped (from CSA)
8 cabbage leaves chopped--in this case one whole small cabbage (from CSA)
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper
3 leeks chopped (from CSA)
1 red onion chopped
3 cloves garlic minced (from CSA)
10 mushrooms sliced
1 stalk of celery chopped
3 T balsamic vinegar
1/2 c Parmesan Cheese

Heat oil in a large pan. Add in greens a little at a time and salt before adding more greens. Cook until the greens are wilted but still retain some of the color. Remove from the heat and place in serving dish. Add more oil to the pan and saute leeks, onion, garlic, mushrooms, and celery together until onions are soft. Add to the greens dish. Toss with balsamic vinegar and cheese. We served it warm, but the recipe instructions indicate that it can be served at any temperature.