Meatless Monday: Tostadas with chard slaw

Celebrate summer with green cabbage, Swiss chard, red onion, and avocado. These tostadas are vegetarian and vegan, but can be served with beans or corn as a side if you're extra hungry. 

|
In Praise of Leftovers
Tostadas are the perfect summer meal. They come together quickly with limited cooking.

We are finally feeling summer. After last week's deluge we're planning to enjoy the 82 degree heat wave today by meeting Megan and her girls at the pool. We have to stay cool somehow. 82 is Death Valley around here!

And summer means berries, chard, zucchini, kale, green beans, cucumbers, herbs. My sister-in-law Kelly got me a full CSA subscription to Sage and Sky Farm, and Wednesdays are my favorite day now. We get a newsletter in our inboxes detailing what's in each week's box, but I don't like to look. I like to be surprised when I open up the blue lid and see all those green, tender morsels picked that morning.

This week, it was chard, arugula, bok choy, lettuce, and sugar snap peas — a giant bag of them which our family consumed while garage sale-ing yesterday morning. (Mothers, I'm sure you know this trick--put vegetables in your childrens' hands while they are in motion or in front of the T.V., and they will disappear. Not that these peas needed any help, though.)

Tostadas are a common meal around here. The crunchy, flat shells are perfect vehicles for all sorts of things, they never go stale in the pantry, and little hands don't have to roll anything up. Per usual, I set all the toppings in the middle of the table and let everyone do their thing. I also served warmed refried beans (though cold would be just fine) and grated white cheddar with these, but you don't need that. 

Presto. A vegan no-cook meal that leaves more time for being outside. 

Tostadas with chard slaw

1. Thinly slice 1/4 head of green cabbage and several large washed, ribbed Swiss chard leaves.

2. Toss them with very thinly sliced red onion, a glug of olive oil, coarse salt, a dash of white wine vinegar, and some crushed red pepper, if you like.

3. Smash avocado (or lay sliced avocado) on your tostada shell and top with slaw. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Meatless Monday: Tostadas with chard slaw
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Food/Stir-It-Up/2013/0708/Meatless-Monday-Tostadas-with-chard-slaw
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe