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Braised Swiss Chard

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:
  1. 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.
  2. 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.

4 thoughts on “Braised Swiss Chard

  1. 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. :-)

  2. 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.

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