Swiss chard recipes

Garlic Sauted Swiss Chard

Swiss chard is a single of my favourite side dishes with fresh Swiss chard from the farmer’s market place. This is straightforward Swiss chard recipe that’s savory, nutrient-dense and tasty. All you do is saut with a small olive oil and garlic.

Serve this tasty side dish up with healthy major dishes like my Crispy Baked Chicken Thighs, Dijon Baked Salmon and Baked Halibut.

Swiss Chard

Swiss chard, in all its vibrant glory, has been a single of my preferred greens since I was a child and my mom would boil it up and toss some butter on top.

It’s a mild, sweet leafy green and there are numerous methods you can prepare it. But as a side dish, this garlic sauted Swiss chard recipe couldn’t be easier or far more tasty.

What is Swiss Chard?

It’s a humorous title, that Swiss Chard. It helps make you think it’s only grown in Switzerland or some thing (which of program, isn’t real). The cause for the “Swiss” moniker is since the plant was identified by a Swiss botanist.

Swiss chard typically goes by the name silverbeet or strawberry spinach and it’s a wonderful substitute to spinach in recipes.

Like spinach, Swiss chard loaded with vitamins and nutrients this kind of as vitamin A, K and C as effectively as potassium, magnesium, iron and dietary fiber.

What’s notable on Swiss chard however is the stems, which can selection in shade from white, to yellow to red and all the colours of the rainbow in in between. That’s why you’ll regularly see it labeled as rainbow chard in the market place.

If you remember my roasted beet, blood orange and mandarin salad recipe, we talked about the phytonutrient betalains – which is generally discovered in reddish-purple pigmented veggies, like beets.

But betalains can also be discovered in Swiss chard, which come from the identical family members as beets. If you search at the brightly colored stems and veins of chard it’s a giveaway.

What Does Swiss Chard Taste Like?

Some say Swiss chard falls somewhere amongst spinach and kale, in terms of bitterness. But I locate it to be just as sweet as spinach, particularly when cooked.

The green leaves can be sliced up and eaten raw in a salad or boiled, roasted or sauted.

The stems will be much more bitter than the leaves and they do take longer to cook, but it’s definitely really worth cooking them rather than tossing. Just think of all the vitamins loaded in those colorful stalks.

How to Make this Swiss Chard Recipe

Start off by washing the leaves individually, as they can harbor a small soil and grime. Then, slice the leaves. To do this, it’s easiest to wrap them up like a cigar, then slice across into strips. Lastly, if you’re trying to keep the stems (which I do advocate) slice the stem into thin pieces.

Once your chard is all sliced up, heat some olive oil in a saut pan along with a number of cloves of minced garlic for a minute. Include the stems, a small bit of water and saut for 1-two minutes before including the remaining Swiss chard leaves. Then cook and stir for 4-5 minutes, or right up until all the leaves have wilted down. Prior to serving, sprinkle a minor large top quality sea salt on top. That’s it!

This complete dish only requires a couple of minutes to cook, so it’s simple to prepare. It’s also tasty and healthful. A handful of very good motives why it’s one particular of my favorite side dishes.