Vegan Swiss Chard Dolmas with Garlicky Pesto Quinoa | Heather, The General Farmer

These Vegan Swiss Chard Dolmas with Garlicky Pesto Quinoa are crowd pleasers – and then everyone realizes the veggie folks are eating them too. The Vegan Pesto sauce is amazing on it’s own!

Article courtesy of: Heather Cain, The General Farmer

Greek food has a special place in my heart, mainly because every time my mom took me on a mother-daughter outing (and these were few and far-between due to the three brothers in the mix) we would end up eating lunch somewhere she could have a gyro. Being young and culinarily inexperienced, I would always order a cheeseburger from the “American” section of the menu, but mom always let me take bites of her lunch, and I always wished I had ordered that. Aside from the gyro, possibly the most perfect non-sandwich sandwich on the face of the earth, I am grateful to the Greeks for dolmas. Man those things are good!

Yesterday before dashing out the door to a Super Bowl party laden with snacks that I couldn’t eat (baked brie, chips, crackers, cookies, etc.) I decided to make something different. I had a hankering for dolmas, none of the necessary ingredients in the fridge, and not much time. I made do.

These could only loosely be called dolmas. They are more of a little bite-sized burrito or something, but whatever the heck they are, they are yummy. This recipe is really quite versatile – you could put anything you want into your quinoa filling depending on what you have on hand and what you are in the mood for. The chard I used is from my garden and was pretty small and tender – larger leaves would have to be cut smaller. Another idea would be to blanch your chard leaves before rolling the quinoa in them – this would be more dolmas-like, and I have done this before. It takes more time and can be a bit of a soggy operation, but still tastes good. I hope you enjoy these!