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Lentils with Swiss Chard and Pomegranate Molasses
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This hearty vegetarian dish combines quick cooking brown lentils and silky, sweet caramelized onion. The earthy, deep flavors are brightened with lemon juice and tangy-sweet pomegranate molasses, while Swiss chard lends minerally notes and cilantro brings freshness. We quick-pickle the chard stems in lemon juice and add them at the end; they offer a pleasing textural contrast to the lentils. Use rainbow chard if available—the brightly hued stems add pops of color. The lentils are especially good with seared salmon fillets, runny-yolked eggs or hunks of warm, crusty bread.
4
Servings
Tip
Don't bother picking off just the leaves from the bunch of cilantro. The tender parts of the stems are fine to use, too. Simply lop off the stems from the entire bunch, removing just the thicker, more fibrous sections.
40 minutes
½ bunch Swiss chard, stems thinly sliced, leaves chopped into rough ¾-inch pieces (about 5 cups), reserved separately
3½ tablespoons lemon juice, divided
1 cup brown lentils, rinsed and drained
4 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped, divided
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus more to serve
1 large yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
1 bunch fresh cilantro, finely chopped
Ingredients
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½
bunch Swiss chard, stems thinly sliced, leaves chopped into rough ¾-inch pieces (about 5 cups), reserved separately
-
3½
tablespoons lemon juice, divided
-
1
cup brown lentils, rinsed and drained
-
4
medium garlic cloves, finely chopped, divided
-
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
-
5
tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus more to serve
-
1
large yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced
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2
tablespoons pomegranate molasses
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1
bunch fresh cilantro, finely chopped
Directions
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01In a small bowl combine the chard stems and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice; set aside. In a large saucepan over high, combine 5 cups water, the lentils, half the garlic and 2 teaspoons salt. Bring to a boil, then stir, reduce to medium-high and cook, adjusting the heat as needed to maintain a rapid simmer, until the lentils are tender, 20 to 25 minutes.
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02Meanwhile, in a nonstick 12-inch skillet over medium-high, heat 2 tablespoons of oil until shimmering. Add the onion and ½ teaspoon salt, then cook, stirring often, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is deeply browned, another 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining garlic and the chard leaves. Continue to cook, stirring often, until the chard is wilted and tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.
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03When the lentils are tender, drain them in a colander, then transfer to the bowl with the onion. Drain off and discard the liquid from the chard stems, then add the stems to the lentils and onion. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons oil, the remaining 1½ tablespoons lemon juice, the pomegranate molasses and 1 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Stir, then fold in the cilantro. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature, drizzled with additional oil.
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Reviews
December 28, 2022
Loved the lemony chard stems!
I really enjoyed the recipe and got to try my pomegranate molasses. I did not have cilantro but used some fresh parsley I had in the refrigerator. I did slice the stems very thin and their lemony crunch was a great foil to the lentils. Did salt to taste and probably used less than the recipe called for. Overall loved it.
May 25, 2022
Delicious! Every flavor interestingly enhances the others
I had always wanted to try a recipe with pomegranate molasses, and this one is a good example, I think, of how it can play a great finishing role in a dish. It does t overpower, and it clearly adds a lot! This was a new recipe to me and I’m new to using Swiss Chard too. I learned how to cut it and clean it using online videos (I used red-stemmed). I had two bunches of organic Swiss Chard and after cutting it and washing it (stems separately from leaves), I had enough to make 1.5 times the recipe. I loved the caramelized onions, the garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. Beautiful flavors introduced to each other in stages. The lentils were deliciously cooked with garlic and salt. And the beautiful thinly cut red stems soaking in lemon juice were a delicious crunchy pet of the experience of eating the dish. I decided to try cooking the recipe this morning so I could approach it unhurriedly. All good! We ate at 10:30 am (stretched it into a wonderful mid morning brunch!). I recommend the recipe made exactly as written. Wow!! Great. Thanks!
November 12, 2022
Bland
Overall flavor was surprisingly bland. I’ve had a good experience with several recipes on Milk Street, but not this one. Amount of lemon juice to pickle stems was too little and the time to short. Used pickled red onions since stems weren’t ready.
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Your First Issue
Our household are more fans of green or black lentils but Milk Street recipes tried for red and browns, like this recipe, have given us a new appreciation for them too. We love chard and cilantro and pomegranate molasses at our house so this was intriguing to try. Made per recipe and good enough that we'll try it again. Since it is as good room temp as it is warm it is a good choice for a make ahead meal or take-a-long dish. That said, while I have pickled chard stems before - and the key here is THIN slicing of them - the jury is out whether our household likes them at all and likely we would not use them again in this dish. Which might also be as good made without the chard at all. Some experimenting is in our future for this - given covid19 has us doing even more "playing with our food" at home in the kitchen than we do in non-health crisis times when we still do a lot of it - as it is benefitted from that pickled element of some kind. And we found we wanted to add a bit more of the pomegranate molasses than recipe specified. But a really good outcome just as written for the first pass. We appreciate Milk Street recipes for reliability like that.