I started taking a weekly organic produce bin again. It is the first time in a while and it feels like a bit of a challenge each week to use up all of the fruit and vegetables, as I can’t bear to see them go to waste! I thought up this recipe as a way to not only use up a bunch of my produce, but as a healthy alternative to the manicotti I was craving. So that’s how I tried to think of it, like a cross between a stuffed, baked pasta and stuffed cabbage. I was surprised when it came out absolutely delicious! It’s a great weeknight dinner, as you can make it early in the day (without baking it) and then throw it in the oven in the evening. Enjoy!

Stuffed Swiss Chard

2Tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cups mushrooms, chopped
8oz Yukon gold potato, peeled and diced

20oz lean ground turkey
¼ cup parsley, finely minced

Mozzarella cheese, grated
3 cups prepared tomato sauce

Parmesan cheese for serving

Prepare a 9×13 pan by lightly spraying it with olive oil spray. Add 1 cup of the tomato sauce to the bottom.

In a sauté pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions, mushrooms and potatoes and stir to coat them with the olive oil. Add ½ cup of water and reduce the heat to low. Cover the pan and steam the vegetables until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Add more water if necessary, as you don’t want the vegetables sticking to the bottom of the pan. The vegetables should be moist, not dry or with standing liquid when done cooking.

Remove the vegetables from the heat and empty into a separate bowl. Season the vegetables with kosher salt to taste. Add the turkey and the parsley to the vegetables. Add a generous sprinkling of salt and fresh pepper to the meat, and then mix the vegetables and the turkey together until well combined.

Take 10 large Swiss chard leaves, and cut the extra stem from the leaves. Evenly distribute the turkey amongst the leaves, and place it two thirds of the way down the leaf. Add a generous sprinkling of mozzarella cheese to the top of the turkey, and roll the turkey up in the leaf as though it were a burrito. Place the bundles, seam side down in the pan with the sauce. There should be room for 2 rows of 5 bundles. Add the additional 2 cups of sauce to the tops of the bundles, and shake the pan, so that the sauce settles around the bundles and to the bottom of the pan.

Cover the pan with foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes. Remove foil and turn heat up to 400 degrees. Cook for an additional 10 minutes or until the cheese is golden and bubbly. When they come out of the oven, sprinkle with a generous amount of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Serve hot with sauce spooned over the top.