When I first moved to Florida (20 years ago), no one here ever heard of Swiss chard. People who worked in produce at the grocery store, or even at produce stands, looked at me like I had an extra eye on my forehead when I inquired about the green vegee.
The photo shown is regular Swiss chard. I prefer rainbow but this was all I could find this week at the store.
In my memoir anthology, I wrote about our next door neighbor who used to give us vegetables from his huge garden. He used to grow Swiss chard and my mom cooked it up as a side dish with our dinners. I absolutely loved the stuff.
For the last few years, our local grocers has finally carried the vegetable. I cook it just like Mom used to make. I’m sure there are other delicious ways to cook the stuff, but this is a simple and tasty side dish. (It’s great in minestrone soup too).
Wash off each Swiss chard leaf under running water (rainbow Swiss chard has an even stronger flavor). Then chop up into bite size pieces.
In pot, heat up olive oil with minced garlic.
Once garlic starts to sizzle, pour in 1 to 2 cups water. Then drop chopped Swiss chard into the pot. Bring to a boil, then lower to simmer. Sprinkle to taste, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Cover and let simmer for 3o minutes. Serve as side dish.
Lori's Lane 
Wow swiss chard is amazing. So is kale. Here’s a great link about its nutritional benefits: http://worldtruth.tv/7-reasons-kale-is-the-new-beef/
Thanks for the recipe, Lori. I would spice is the way you did, but I would cook it a little differently. Since heating oil of any kind, but especially olive oil, oxidizes it making it less healthy and even a little toxic to the body, I lightly steam the greens, then add the oil afterwards to get the full flavor and nutritional benefits. Thanks for sharing about these wonderful greens.
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Thanks for this info, Nick. Good to hear from you.
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I like chard, but beeeee careful as it is high in vitamin K.
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It’s good stuff, but I mix up my greens when I eat. Now, if only my stomach would get healthy enough to eat the stuff again. Thanks for checking out my recipe.
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I’m very limited in my vegetable experiences. I’ve heard of Swiss Chard but have never tried it. Now I just might!
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It’s easy to make so give it a try. If you like spinach, this is even better.
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I buy chard just about every week. Yum. Eat your colors to prevent cancer!
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Thanks for checking it out, Robin. Let’s eat our vegees.
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Hi,
We call this silverbeet here in Australia, very nice recipe, seems very easy to do, I may have to give this one a go. 🙂
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Oh yes, if you like greens, you’ll like this one. Thank you for sharing what you call it in Australia. I had no idea. Pete taught me that it’s from the beet family, so no wonder you call it silverbeet. I love how much we can learn from each other. Thanks again, Mags.
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Lori, this is something new for me .. have heard about chard – but I don’t think I have eaten it. Not what I know off. What I understand it belongs to the beet family – nice surprise. Thanks !
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You’re the chef, Viveka. I know you’ll make it delicious. If you like greens, you’ll like this one.
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As a non cook, this sounds simple enough for me to accomplish! Thanks….looks great!
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If you like greens, you should love this one. Thanks for checking it out, Linda. 🙂
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It’s uncanny you write about this today. I got so excited I almost called you! I mean, I don’t have your number, but if I did, I would have.
I’ve been eating chard everyday for the last week. I got it from a local farmer here. I’ve never really eaten it before and I can’t believe how much I love it. I’ve been having it in salads but am looking forward to cooking it with garlic, black pepper etc, BUTTER! I love the stems most of all, has that radishy thing going on.
I actually went to Wikipedia to find out more about this veggie, and didn’t realize it was from the beet family! I hate beets. But I have eaten and like beet leaves and stems. And in the chard case, we’re not eating the roots.
I love it. And I know it’s nutritionally one of the best things on the planet. So I have to thank God for it I guess haha
I really enjoyed this.
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That’s crazy Pete, because I had this blog drafted for a while. Other things came up in the mean time and I posted those instead. It looks like I posted this one just in time for your Swiss chard eating binge. It really is yummy. I didn’t know it was in the beet family either, and I hate those too. Have loved Swiss chard since I was a kid though. Now you can try it with a little spicy red pepper flakes … if you like spicy. 😉
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