I picked up some Swiss chard at the farmers’ market last week without any real good idea of what to do with it. I guess I’m attracted to colorful, peculiar vegetables that I’ve never tried. Sometimes this is a good thing, other times it leads to disaster. Luckily for the chard, I found a great, simple recipe for preparing it on Elise’s Simply Recipes website. She also says that fresh chard taste much, much better than old. Luckily I had a bunch that looked pretty good.
Swiss Chard Recipe
From: Simply Recipes
Ingredients:
- 1 large bunch of fresh Swiss chard
- 1 small clove garlic, sliced
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 Tbsp water
- Pinch of dried crushed red pepper
- 1 teaspoon butter
- salt
Directions:
- Rinse off the Swiss chard leaves thoroughly. Remove the toughest third of the stalk, discard. Roughly chop the leaves and stem into inch-wide strips.
- Heat a saucepan on a medium heat setting, add olive oil, a few small slices of garlic and the crushed red pepper. Sauté for about a minute. Add the chopped Swiss chard leaves. Cover. Check after about 5 minutes. If it looks dry, add a couple tablespoons of water. Flip the leaves over in the pan, so that what was on the bottom, is now on the top. Cover again. Check for doneness after another 5 minutes (remove a piece and taste it). Add salt to taste, and a small amount of butter. Remove the swiss chard to a serving dish.
Such beautiful colors! I recently tried swiss chard for the first time and I really liked it. With garlic and red pepper flakes, I definitely want to try it this way next time. :-)
Really lovely!
Lisa – That looks soo good. I will definitely have to try that for the next batch! It looks almost like an Au Gratin or Creamed Spinach except lighter. Fresh Chard already tastes a bit buttery, so that has to be out of this world good.
Oh you have to try this
http://beyondsalmon.blogspot.com/2006/07/technique-of-week-how-to-cook-swiss.html
from Helen at Beyond Salmon. I like to add some golden raisins and toasted pine nuts but even without the extras it’s still fanfreakintastic.