I agree with you about chard - it needs to be fresh, and it's surprisingly yummy. Your recipe sounds very nice. I think a simple approach is best with greens.

By the way - I grew up in Fair Oaks and now live in the South Bay. I can't figure out why, but I seem to think you're originally from Carmichael?

What exactly is Swiss Chard? It almost sounds like a cheese, but from the comments (and picture) I gather it's more a vegetable. Like Broccoli perhaps?

Hi Pink - it's more like kale than broccoli. One of the leafy green vegetables. Not as bitter as kale.

Hi Sheri - high school days.

I picked some fresh swiss chard at a local hydroponic farm yesterday. They grow the white stemmed variety, but also have red and yellow stemmed types. They are beautiful!

I love swiss chard, but converted a friend who hated it by serving them lentil swiss chard soup. It's a Syrian recipe and I found a great version of it in a James Beard cookbook.

Hi Amy, I did a search in Amazon and found this James Beard recipe for Lentil Soup with Chard and Lemon in James Beard's American Cookery:

1 1/2 cups lentils
2 1/2 lbs fresh Swiss Chard
1/2 cup olive oil
3/4 cup chopped onion
3 to 4 garlic cloves
Salt
1 Stalk celery, chopped
3/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon flour
Chopped chives for garnish

Wash and pick over the lentils. Cover them with fresh cold water, and cook, covered, until tender. Wash the Swiss Chard leaves and chop them. Add these and a cup of water to the lentils. Continue cooking until the Swiss chard is done, adding more water if necessary. Heat the olive oil in a skillet and add the chopped onion. Crush the garlic cloves with salt, and add these and the chopped celery to the onion. Continue cooking until the vegetables are tender and blended. Add to the lentil mixture. Mix the lemon juice with the flour and stir it into the soup. Cook gently, stirring occasionally, until the soup is rather thick. Taste for seasoning. Serve chilled with chopped chives in soup bowls, and pass crusty French or Italian bread to sop up the juices.

Thanks for the suggestion! It sounds like a great recipe.

I am of Italian lineage and our family recipe calls for an important step whenever cooking swiss chard. Always par-boil the swiss chard to remove any bitterness first and to tenderize them. A terrific recipe we have is to (after par-boiling) saute with garlic and olive oil and add a can of tomato sauce (not prepared sauce like Prego or any of that stuff). The small cans of actual sauce that you find near the canned tomatoes. This is a most delicious way to serve as a side dish. It is my favorite!

I have just enjoyed reading the information and comments about Swiss chard. It is a regular in our vegetable garden. Our preparation is very quick and simple; we place the freshly picked and washed leaves and stems in our six liter pressure cooker in the steamer tray with just a couple cups of water under the tray and bring it up to pressure for three or four minutes depending how full the cooker is. The steam does the cooking, so as to retain nutrients and flavour. On removal from the cooker we cut up the chard in a bowl, add a little butter, some red wine vinegar and salt and pepper to taste and enjoy. It is by far our favorite green, followed by beet greens and spinach.

My favorite swiss chard recipe is actually for the stems - chop and then steam (or boil) until tender; drain. Toss with a dressing of Tahine, olive oil, garlic, salt and lemon juice. YUM!

Wow. I just tried (and gobbled the result of) this recipe tonight with some red chard I received in my produce delivery this week. so tasty! I never imagined chard could be so ridiculously tasty! (I'd never tried it before.)

Chard > Spinach and Kale!!!

Some swiss chard sautéed with some pancetta bacon is oh so yummy.

Thanks for the recipe. I just grew a garden and planted Swiss Chard so I ran out and picked some. I can't wait to try it. I grew up with Collard greens, which I love.

Maha,
what do you mean by "beet greens"? Is that the green part of the beet plant?

And Penny, I'm so glad others like vinegar on their greens, because my dad always put vinegar on our greens which my husband thought was weird. I consider greens a hot salad.

The most gorgeous thing that one can do with Chard is to prepare the leaves and stems as indicated in other posts, and then to sautee the chard with garlic, onion, a bit of chicken stock, fresh or canned tomatoes, to which is added a browned, spicy sausage, like chorizo or Hungarian sausage. Adjust seasonings to taste with sea salt, fresh black pepper, and ground pepper flakes, and top with a tiny shaving of parmesean.
A similar recipe with Kale was made by my housemate, Tristen, now in Zurich.
Absolutely the most rich, mellow flavours from the Chard and sausage!

I would like to know if a person can eat swiss chard raw. I mean use it like lettuce?

cherry: yes, beet greens are the leaves of the beet plant, and the best part in my opinion, they work great in cabbage rolls instead of cabbage.

Lanelle...Chard tends to be bitter when not cooked, but you could always try a little and see what you think of the taste. Personally, I prefer to cook chard before eating it. Hope this helps!

SWISS CHARD STEMS
Do the following:
1. Boil until tender
2. Chop into small pieces
3. Mix Tahini (sesame seed paste) or in a pinch and out of tahini, use peanut butter, lemon juice, a piece of crushed garlic and a little water, salt and pepper. This should be a pourable sauce. Proportions are up to you. I use about 1 large spoon of tahini to 1/2 spoon of lemon juice. This will be VERY THICK. Add water by the spoonful, and stir until the right consistency. Pour this mixture over the cooked, chopped stems. Eat on pita bread or tortillia rolled up. Very tasty.
4. Keep cooked stems in freezer and add to soups, stews, stir frys, mix in rice dishes, and I know you will think of another way.

Chard is VERY EASY to grow. Share a packet of seeds with a friend. Grows easily in pots.

Lanelle..... I have swiss chard in my garden that has been growing for 2 years. THe more I pick the more shoots the roots send up. This is by far the most unusual set of chard I have planted. I started planting it b/c I love it mixed into a green salad. So yes you can use it in a salad. I would use it very fresh though before it has a chance to get bitter.

We grow swiss chard in our garden and we love it!
Lately I have found that eating too much of it makes my tongue feel weird, actually painful. Almost like it is swollen.
Anyone else ever have this and know why it happens?

A simple Lebanese recipe for swiss chard. Sauté chopped swiss shard with smashed garlic and cilantro in olive oil for five minutes add a cup of cooked black eyed-bean then cook on low heat, eat it with pita bread...I prefer this dish cold out of the fridge.

This simple recipe is very nice. I just tried it and enjoyed every bit of it. I just squirted a bit of lime juice in the end.
Thanks!

Hello - I am from the UK and have just started using Swiss Chard from my veg. patch. I would love to try the black-eyed beans recipe but do not know what 'cilantro' is - can anyone help please?

Cilantro is the plant part of the coriander seed. It is traditionally used in Latin foods (think Salsa) and Middle Eastern foods. It looks just like parsley but has fragrant smell and taste.

Can one freeze swiss chard and if so how? (pre cook or raw).

Cilantro is called corriander leaves in the UK.

We like swiss chard in pasta. Clean chard, boil pasta, sauté garlic in olive oil, add chard, sauté for a few minutes until wilted, add in cooked pasta, and butter, mix well, grate some fresh parmesan cheese on top. Serve. Yummy. I would also like to know if you can freeze chard(raw or cooked)?

*** To respond to Lavender's note June 7, 2007, about the "tongue swelling" from Swiss Chard--
I am wondering if this may NOT have been Chard that was ingested.
I am also trying to figure this out b/c I planted both Rhubarab and Swiss Chard very close together and they appear very similar.
After researching rhubarb just today, I had not previously known this--(my Dad said the leaves were VERY poisonous)-- I learned rhubarb leaves, although they look so much like Swiss Chard, are poisonous & can cause swelling of the tongue and throat which can cause anaphylaxis (spelling??) in other words, actually can close the human airway!

Can someone please define the differences in the leaves for me-- it's serious "Harvest Time" and I'd hate to waste all the Swiss Chard leaves thinking it's rhubarb-- For example, on one plant, just a tiny bit of red was at the bottom & the stems taste very tart (like the pearls inside pomegranate's)-- which makes me think that one was, in fact, rhubarb--Are the flavor of the Swiss Chard stalks similar to the flavor of the rhubarb stalks(petioles)-- And if so, how can I tell them apart?? I sure do not want to cook the poisonous ones! And what about the flavor of the leaves? Appreciate the info if someone can help clarify!

p.s. Lavender, I hope all is well !!

Diane

I don't know how to cook, and I never even knew what swiss chard was a few weeks ago. I work at a Whole Foods market, and every time I pass it, I just want to eat it. So, I googled it, to find out what it was, and how to eat it, and stumbled upon this site. Oh mannnnn, am I glad I did! I have made a few of your recipes already, and I have tons of them saved to start trying. I can not WAIT to try them all, LOL. Anyway, my husband absolutely LOVED it too, so I made it again this week. I made this one, and the pasta one also. Yummmm! I made the butternut squash soup last night, and the baked acorn squash with maple syrup today. I had never tried either squash, but your recipes are the least complicated I've seen, so I've got the confidence to try them. Absolutely delicious!

I had the same experience of irritation in my throat when eating a few raw swiss chard stems.
I eat rhubarb often, it's much more tangy than swiss chard and larger. Once you learn the difference, you won't mistake one for another. The chard is more delicate. We have always heard that rhubarb leaves are poisonous, but not tested the theory.

just heard of the good reasons (detox, clearer skin etc.) to eat swiss chard: go to whole foods~~~they have red and rainbow chard...it's really the colour of the stems......the people were very helpful...but this site is the best..I am going to "mix and match" the suggestions given here...yum yum

My two year old daughter even loved this swiss chard. It probably helped that the stalks were pink, but she ate the greens and really enjoyed them.

I'm so glad I found this recipe. I DO like chard! The only thing I added was a sprinkle of sugar in with chard simmer and 3 tablespoons chopped tomato. I also bought my chard from the whole food place and it was fresh and not bitter.

So two years ago I planted chard. The chard grew so well that it became a 'Chard Tree'. It was very beautiful, and we were joking that we would sub it as our christmas tree!! The chard came back the next year, and it was wonderful.