Recipe Search: Swiss Chard

I have come to terms with my upbringing, and am seeking your collective help to move towards change. I grew up without having much exposure to different fruits and vegetables. I have realized that it is not sustainable to not expand my palate or cooking skill. I am coming to all you good people and asking for your favorite recipes that center around some kind of fruit or vegetable help. I'm going to start these threads all the same with "Recipe Search:" so keep an eye out!

Swiss chard sure does look interesting but I've heard that it can be bitter? I'm not actually sure I have ever tried it so this is truly unknown territory for me. What is your best preperations?

Swiss Chard

(Source)

I would say the 'bitter' reputation only holds if you are comparing it, justifiably, to spinach.  The comparison is somewhat justified because the two are related within the family Amaranthaceae and when cooked taste somewhat similar.  As a fresh, uncooked green, however, many will consider Swiss chard less palatable than spinach.  I use swiss chard in place of spinach wherever recipes call for cooking of the green.  As an added benefit, Swiss chard often seems to grow more easily....here in north central US, both will be out of the gate after spring germination, but the heat of mid-summer favors chard which does not suffer as badly under higher summer temperatures.  Although we like to grow, freeze, and use a fair amount of chard through the year, in the interest of space-saving in your garden, you could grow red beets and use the leaves for chard-type use (beets and chard are both the same species, Beta vulgaris) while harvesting the beet roots for other dishes, pickling, and root cellar storage.

An easy introduction to a chard dish would be sautéing a bit of onion in dairy or non-dairy butter of your choice, then adding some slices of fresh tomato, handful of fresh swiss chard, and dash of nutmeg.  Cook until chard is tender, like cooked spinach.  Salt and pepper to taste.  It's pretty quick and easy and low on ingredient complexity.....and gives a good introduction to the flavor of chard.  Also....will recommend the 'fun' multicolored offering of 'Bright Lights' Swiss Chard available from many vendors around the U.S. (packaging for the one from Gurney's Seeds shown below). Good luck!

I've started looking at what seeds I have.

I have a more 'traditional' swiss chard but I also got my hands on a Perpetual Spinach variety. I figure I'm going to give both a spin this year and see how I like them. I'm only going to plant a small amount and gauge my interest from there.

I love Swiss chard now that I'm with my husband, hadn't eaten it before I met him.  He sautes it in a saucepan/sort of between sauteing and simmering, with lime, butter and salt.  Its so good and then we share the "pot liquor" after we eat it and drink that and its so good and does a pleasant thing to my throat, I don't know how to describe it.

As with most greens, I treat soft leaf differently than the stem, even if I'm eating them together. The leaf makes a nice salad green sliced thin. The stem is fine that way, but sliced very thin. we also just wilt the greens with a little water/steam in a big wok and then eat that as-is or dressed, or add it to something like lasagna. Any mess of greens is particularly nice sauteed in toasted sesame oil with garlic. The stems are good tossed in olive oil and a bunch of black pepper, then roasted in a hot oven for twenty minutes. Or chopped up finely and sauteed into a soup base with onion and whatever.

Also know that chard is just beet greens genetically optimized for leaf growth instead of root, so all of this applies to the greens of beets when you're harvesting those too.

Christopher Weeks wrote: so know that chard is just beet greens genetically optimized for leaf growth instead of root, so all of this applies to the greens of beets when you're harvesting those too.

I did not know that! That is an incredibly helpful tidbit for my own knowledge. Thank you for sharing.

Also, chard doesn't normally register on my bitter scale. Even young dandelions or stems of lettuce litterally drip with bitter latex!

And also-also, that stuff I wrote above all applies to kale, collards, mustard greens, broccoli leaves, sea kale, radish leaves and even spinach and arugula.

I love Swiss chard!  I use the green bits in soups. fritters, quiches, gratin, and of course sautéed as mentioned above.  I use the very young leaves in salads.  My favorite to use the thicker stems, is to cut them in small bits, sautéed them with onions, garlic and herbs then chuck the lot in a cheese sauce.  Then put in the oven, topped up with crushed nuts, bread crumbs and a few knobs of butter (you can add extra cheese on top if you wish also).  Served with mash potato it makes a wonderful hearty meal.

I also separate Swiss Chard stems and leaves. The stems are wonderful in a garlic rich lacto-ferment or quick pickle ( I chop into bite size pieces), the brine ends up a pretty pink. Like Olga I also love adding the chopped stem bits to any pan that is caramelizing/sautéing onions, early on. They like each other. If adding the leaves, I'll do that later on in the cook, so as not to make them into mush. The green leaves I blanch, squeeze and freeze, and use all winter anyway you might spinach: egg dishes, soups, stir fries, curries, savory hand-pie fillings. Yum!

The green leaves I blanch, squeeze and freeze, and use all winter anyway you might spinach: egg dishes, soups, stir fries, curries, savory hand-pie fillings

I forgot to mention it but, yes, I also freeze them and they lend themselves to all sorts of ways in Indian cooking.

Olga Booker wrote:they lend themselves to all sorts of ways in Indian cooking.

Along those lines, start with the many south Asian saag dishes.

John Weiland wrote: Although we like to grow, freeze, and use a fair amount of chard through the year, in the interest of space-saving in your garden, you could grow red beets and use the leaves for chard-type use (beets and chard are both the same species, Beta vulgaris) while harvesting the beet roots for other dishes, pickling, and root cellar storage.

In my experience, red beets tend to not develop nice roots if you harvest their leaves repeatedly. Either you grow a lot of them to keep your pressure light, or you do not harvest the leaves often.

Another plus of chard is their willingness to reseed themselves after a spectacular (and sweetly fragrant) blooming on their second year. A very good sow-and-forget vegetable.

Finely chopped stems can also be stir-fried in a wok ; I also separate leaves and stems to cook them separately.

In Belgium we have a traditional swiss chard leaf pie,  'tarte al d'jote', that you can find here : https://boroughmarket.org.uk/recipes/tarte-al-djote/

chard makes some excellent quiches and tarts (like the one above). If you're not sure about whether you like chard, you can mix it with other, stronger spices, like in this recipe.
https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/chard-herb-frittata-with-cherry-tomatoes

I also separate out the stems. Here the folks prefer not to eat them. Instead, we throw them in the leftover pickle brine, and then somehow they magically become appetizing!

To me, chard is never bitter.

Here's a super easy "palak paneer" method that can be used with any cooking green, including edible weeds, chard, spinach, calaloo, etc. It requires a food processor or blender (either countertop or immersion). It makes a creamy green puree that is traditionally used with paneer cheese cubes in Northern India but as easily can be used with tofu cubes, or just with pasta, etc.

- Wash the greens.
- Bring a pot of lightly salted water to boil.
- Drop the washed greens into the water and push down gently with a spoon.
- After about 5 to 10 minutes, when the greens look cooked, drain them out of the pot into a colander.
- Chop enough onions to make a pile about half the size of the pile of cooked greens. (Onions makes the result sweet an counters any possible bitterness).
- Sautee the onions in any fat or oil of your choice, while the greens cool a bit. Butter is yummy.
- Puree the greens with the sauteed onions, adding just enough cream to make it possible to puree to a very smooth consistency. If you don't want to use cream, use milk or any non-dairy milky substitute of your choice. If using a countertop blender, it's important that the contents not be very hot, or they will burst upwards and outwards and make a mess in your kitchen.
- Add salt to taste while pureeing.

This smooth green puree can be used various ways.
- For "palak paneer" with either paneer or tofu, cut the white stuff into small bite-sized cubes. Either deep fry the cubes first or use them directly raw. Heat the green puree gently with the white cubes in it, and serve over rice or as a side dish.

- If you have some basil or other tasty pesto, you can expand your precious pesto with the green puree, and then use it over pasta and/or vegetables. I like it as a sauce on plain boiled cauliflower, if you are trying to increase your vegetable intake.