Sage chard with lemon feta rice

Sage is fried in some butter, then added to some stir-fried swiss chard, onions and tomatoes. The sage-chard mixture is served along with some brown arborio rice. It tastes like inside out grape-leaves. The chard and tomatoes come from the garden.

Get the rice going first. Then prep the swiss chard, onions and tomatoes.

Ingredients

1 T butter
6-8 sage leaves
1/2 onion, diced
1 bunch swiss chard, stems and leaves chopped and separated.
1 cup cherry tomatoes
fresh black pepper

For the rice:
1 cup brown arborio rice (you can use white too)
1 quart of water
1/3 cup feta, crumbled
juice of 1 lemon

Directions.

1. Heat water until boiling and then add the arborio rice. Cook over medium-high heat for 30-45 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, prep the chard, cut up the onions, and leave the tomatoes whole.
3. Heat butter in a wide skillet over medium heat. Once hot, fry sage leaves until fragrant or about 1 minute. Set the fried sage leaves aside.
4. Add in chopped chard stems and diced onions to the same skillet. Cook 8 minutes.
5. Stir in the chard and continue to cook another 8 minutes.
6. Add in tomatoes, and turn down heat to low. Continue cooking another 8 minutes. Now focus on the rice.
   
7. Place feta and lemon juice in a large mixing bowl.
8. Once rice is cooked, add it into the mixing bowl and toss together. Season with pepper.
9. Top the chard mixture with the fried sage leaves and serve alongside the rice.

Notes: I didn't add salt because the feta is salty/brine-y enough.
For the chard - wash and dry the leaves. Separate the stems from the leaves. Chop the stems like you would chop celery. For the leaves, place the leaves one on top of the other and then roll into a "burrito" then slice across into 1/2" ribbons. This will give you nice chard ribbons.