You can use it anywhere you'd use spinach. We often just have it as a side. Sweated, boiled (no extra water), steamed or stir fried. You can use the stems and leaves separately or together. Garlic, butter, nutmeg, cream, bacon all go well with it. This recipe is quite tasty. https://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/chard-bacon-rosemary-chilli-pasta

We usually pan fry it, rough chopped, with garlic & olive oil. We’ve also made rolls, like dolmas or stuffed cabbage, using the leaves, & we’ll use the stalks in soups etc.

Smiles,

Sooz

Aleppo pepper is just great with greens sauteed in garlic and olive oil.

It's one of those veg that I wish I loved, but I don't. The only thing I'd do is to slice it all finely, cook it gently, add a TON of garlic and herbs and make it into a pie (not tart). I think I'd add cheese too. It really needs help LOL. I'd use a méditerranéen-style olive oil pastry.

I made a pie last week based on a recipe from Tasting History, which was a 16th (iirc) Italian cheese and green herbs pie.

The original had a lot of sugar, cinnamon and cloves in it, which while Max Miller said he liked it, he also said it was ”weird”. I knew ”weird” was not going to get past my husband, so I omitted the sugar and spices and substituted finely chopped spring onions and some rocket leaves that needed a home.

There were equal quantities of finely chopped chard and spinach leaves, the aforementioned spring onions and rocket, lots of pepper (DH loves pepper), mascarpone, grated parmesan and ricotta and some egg yolks to bind it all.

It tasted not unlike a Paremsan-y spanakopita, if you can imagine that. I would do it again, but a smaller version as the original was the size of a 9” springform so it took the two of us several days to eat it all. I would also use a normal shortcrust recipe as I felt the original version was quite fiddly for no extra yumminess.

The recipe is here:

Scappi’s Renaissance Herb Torte (as interpreted by Max Miller) has

MODERN RECIPE INGREDIENTS -

Chard -

Spinach -

* Mint -

* Marjoram -

1 lb (450g) Ricotta -

¾ lb (340g) Parmesan -

3oz (85g) of High Fat Cheese (I think this was the mascarpone in the book version) -

6 Tablespoons (85g) Butter Softened -

1 Tablespoons Pepper -

* 4 ½ Teaspoons Cinnamon -

* 1 ½ Teaspoons Cloves -

3 Medium Eggs -

* ½ Cup Sugar -

2 Portions of Flaky Pastry Dough

METHOD

1. Line a large pie tin or cake pan with pastry dough and blind bake it in a 450°F/230°C oven for 12-15 minutes, or until cooked. Remove from the oven and let cool.

2. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F/180°C.

3. Finely Chop all of your herbs/greens.

4. Mix the cheeses in a large bowl until somewhat smooth. Add the eggs and beat until incorporated. Then add the butter, sugar, and spices and mix until combined. Finally, add in the greens and mix them by hand so as not to bruise the greens.

5. Once the filling is well mixed, pour into the cooled pastry shell and smooth the top. Then top it with the other piece of pastry and press the edges into the bottom dough. Leave some ripples on the top crust to give room for the filling to expand during baking. Brush the top with an egg wash, then set on the bottom rack of the oven and bake for 1 hour.

6. Once baked remove from the oven and serve warm.

Note: I omitted the asterisked ingredients and substituted dried mixed herbs, spring onions (about 1/2 cup) and about 1/2 cup of rocket/arugula. I used 2 cups each of chard and spinach leaves.

compost

I like to chop it up and add to what I call deluxe dirty rice, lots of veggies(tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic, celery) and some kind of ground meat (usually beef) cooked together with rice and Cajun style seasoning - the stems are my fave part.

My recipe for spanakopita calls for spinach and chard combined, along with a lot of parsley, so that's what I always use it for. I don't really love it on it's own as a green.

This has been a go-to recipe for years. First saw it on the Food Network's How to Boil Water.

Pasta & Swiss chard

6 oz. penne or similar shaped pasta, cooked & drained (save some water to thin sauce if needed)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 large onion, chopped

1 or 2 stalks celery, chopped

4 oz. mushrooms, sliced (optional)

3 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 – 1 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

salt & pepper to taste

large bunch Swiss chard, washed, stems removed and coarsely chopped

2-3 tablespoons pine nuts, lightly toasted

Heat oil in a large skillet; sauté onion and celery for about 10 minutes. Add the mushrooms. Cook for a couple minutes. Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add crushed tomatoes, red pepper flakes, salt & pepper. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add the chopped Swiss chard and pine nuts. Continue cooking for a few minutes -- only until chard wilts. Add cooked pasta. Toss to coat. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese.

I might have posted it before, but Ina G’s Winter Minestrone is really good IMO. I just made it for the umpteenth time. You could easily use chard instead of spinach. It’s tasty with or without the Garlic Bruschetta. I don’t always add the pasta and sub potatoes for the squash (DH isn’t a bnut squash fan). Pesto’s also optional. Easy to tweak this!

Winter Minestrone With Garlic Bruschetta

• Olive oil
• 4 ounces pancetta, ½-inch-diced
• 1½ cups chopped yellow onions
• 2 cups (½-inch) diced carrots (3 carrots)
• 2 cups (½-inch) diced celery (3 stalks)
• 2½ cups (½-inch) diced peeled butternut squash
• 1½ tablespoons minced garlic (4 cloves)
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
• 26 ounces canned or boxed chopped tomatoes
• 6 to 8 cups chicken stock
• 1 bay leaf
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups cooked small pasta, such as tubetti
• 8 to 10 ounces fresh baby spinach leaves
• 1/2 cup good dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons pesto (store bought or homemade)
• Garlic Bruschetta (see recipe)
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for serving

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy pot or Dutch oven. Add the pancetta and cook over medium-low heat for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Add the onions, carrots, celery, squash, garlic, and thyme and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 8 to 10 minutes, until the vegetables begin to soften.

Add the tomatoes, 6 cups of the chicken stock, the bay leaf, 1 tablespoon salt, and 1-1/2 teaspoons pepper to the pot. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.

Discard the bay leaf. Add the beans and cooked pasta and heat through. The soup should be quite thick but if it’s too thick, add more chicken stock. Just before serving, reheat the soup, add the spinach, and toss with 2 big spoons (like tossing a salad). Cook just until the leaves are wilted. Stir in the white wine and pesto. Depending on the saltiness of the chicken stock, add another teaspoon or two of salt to taste. Serve large shallow bowls of soup with a bruschetta on top. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, drizzle with olive oil, and serve hot.

Garlic Bruschetta

• 1 baguette
• Good olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, cut in half lengthwise

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Slice the baguette at a 45-degree angle in 1/2-inch-thick slices. Brush both sides of the bread with olive oil and bake for 6 minutes, until lightly toasted. Take the slices out of the oven and rub the surface of each one with the cut clove of garlic.

ETA - Photo from Ina

These recipes all sound good. I'm thinking I should make a big pot of soup with pasta and put the chard in that. We''ll see how the chopping goes.

plllog, I sometimes add chard ribbons to my pasta e fagioli.

I add chard or kale to all of my soups and stews. I also like chard sauted with onions and garlic, maybe a few cherry tomatoes involved. In fact! I think I'll have some tonight!

Some restaurant from long ago made a spaghetti dish that I vaguely copy when I am inundated with chard. Basically pasta with a fresh tomato sauce topped with super garlicky sauteed chard and goat cheese or blue cheese. I am not sure I remember which cheese was in the original. I like either one.

As a side, sautéed with olive oil and then bread crumbs

I had never had it but wanted to increase my leafy greens and found it at a nearby farm, fresh-picked. I sauteed it with garlic and olive oil. Boy, was it bitter! Is it always that way?

I've never had bitter chard. IMPE, it's on a par with spinach - maybe a bit tangy from the oxalic acid. Perhaps something went wrong with yours, Eileen?

You could blanch it if it's too bitter for you. But I've never found it so, though it is a bit stronger tasting than spinach.

It self sows on my allotment and is available year round. Essentially grows itself. Also fairly snail proof compared with any kind of Brassica.

IME, chard can be sweet or bitter or in between—and so can spinach, though packaged spinach is usually young and sweet. But ”boy, was it bitter” is unusual. Sweet is rare. I'm a ”supertaster” who tastes three different compounds found in vegetable as very bitter, which according to the testing materials means having two alleles of the genes that make you taste the bitterness. Eileen, are your ancestors from Northern or Middle Europe? Even if not, you could be a supertaster. It makes green difficult. I needed to, and chopped a mix of them them fine, raw, in the blender with apple and cucumber to sweeten, and mixed with water and ceylon cinnamon, and was able to chew and get them down in large quantity. It did the job making me feel better (supposedly gut health) but did impact my thyroid and I had to stop. Since then, I've gone back to eating a handful of spinach or arugula at a time, but bought the chard thinking I should add some more greens back after half a year, but still can't remember what I thought I was going to make with it...

Adding that raw is definitely not as nice as cooked - even those 'baby' leaves in salad mixes taste yucky to me.

Oh, yeah, there are some that are bonkers! Like frisee? Ugh!! But I do like spinach and arugula raw. Without the apples I would never have been able to choke down all those raw greens.

I actually like frisee and curly endive in salads - especially when combined with sweet peppers, feta and walnuts, dressed with lemon, oregano, salt and pepper.

Raw kale, OTOH just tastes gross to me - it's akin to raw collards, IMO.

If you need sweet to offset the potential bitterness, try the unusual tourte aux blettes. Here's David Lebovitz recipe. I wonder if the roots criss-cross with the 16th century herb torte above:

https://www.davidlebovitz.com/swiss-chard-tart-recipe-tourte-de-blettes/

Thanks, Gooster! Unusual, indeed. I don't have the oomph back yet to attempt it, but it's certainly one to remember and try at some point.

Carol, if you like frisee in salad, you don't have the gene(s) I do! To me it is inedible at all times. I have taught myself to deal with a certain amount of bitter that my genetic heritage is exclaiming, "Poison! Poison! Poison!" over, but not frisee. I can appreciate chard. And the grocery store makes an interesting salad with curly kale, feta and lemon, which is tolerable to good, bite by bite. It took a lot to get to the point where I could eat kale--and raw collards (with other greens and the apple)--I basically have to focus on the "green" flavor and fight down the bitterness.

That recipe is intriguing, Gooster. Come October I'll have plenty of chard and plenty of apples. Might try it!

Earlier this year my chard purchase at the farmers market turned out to be surprisingly bitter. The leaves were gorgeous, but also huge -- bigger than any I've ever seen. That was a first.

I was just paging through an Italian cookbook last night and saw a savory Chard tart -- Tegliata di Biete. This might be it ---

https://www.foodandwine.com/swiss-chard-torte-7571449

I'm getting a new cookbook with a version of the sweet tarte --- from Rosa Jackson's new cookbook Nicoise. Pictured in this article

We had home grown chard last night. I just steamed it and served it as a side dish. Delicious.

Thanks, Gooster! Similar, pine nuts and raisins, but fewer ingredients and bread crumbs rather than dough. It'll be some time before I can try these things, but they're saved. On the F&W page, I also found some other recipes to save, maybe for Fall. So double thanks!

Mulch. My mother tried to get me to eat this when I was still under her wing in the kitchen. Yuck.

I think you meant compost.

I thought you could mulch with compost?

Lay the chard over your soil. It will act as mulch to prevent more weeds from growing and eventually break down into compost. Or, you can feed it to your pets and let them compost the garden as needed.

Too late for your April chard, but this:

Algerian chard and chickpea tagine

3 qts roughly chopped chard, rinsed and drained but not dried

2-1/4 c (10 oz) chopped onion

5 T olive oil

1-1/4 t minced garlic

1 T paprika, rounded

1 t ground coriander, rounded

1 bunch cilantro, stemmed and roughly chopped

2 T lemon juice

1-1/4 c cooked, drained chickpeas (or a 15-oz can, drained and well rinsed)

In a wide pan, saute the onion in olive oil with a little salt till clear. Add the garlic and spices, stir and cook another two minutes. Add the greens and some water. Cook partially covered, stirring occasionally, till tender and wilted. Salt to taste. Add the chickpeas, cook two minutes. Add the cilantro, cook one minute. Add the lemon juice, remove from heat, add salt and pepper to taste.

The amounts are as they came to me from my mother, who cut down her restaurant recipe for me. I don't actually measure the onion and garlic, just chop/mince some and throw it in.

To make this with tougher greens, like collards or kale, you'll need to cover the pan and braise, adding water from time to time.

T= tablespoon, t=teaspoon

That sounds great, subbing other herbs for the cilantro in my mind, I'd actually like to try it with collards. But wondering how it would do in an actual tagine. If it can all be put in and cooked together in the tagine, since soaked chickpeas and collards take similar amounts of time on their own.,,

If you're one of the biological cilantro-haters, I get it. If you're not, though: I made this without the cilantro for years to save a little work. We all loved it, but the day I finally added in the cilantro, everybody (including me) said it was the best batch I'd ever made. Doesn't taste like cilantro, just tastes...better.

I think I probably have one allele of the cilantro hate. I grew up with it in Mexican food and can accept small amounts. My father was a pure hater, and reviled the just a bit, and having done his part in the air corps, eating whatever he was given in WWII, he would eat most things without complaint. My mother wasn't the type who go for cilantro like puss with catnip, but she liked it. So my tolerance is either a single gene of hate, rather than a pair, or just being inured to the amount you can't pick out. Or both. I never voluntarily put cilantro in—I can't bear it straight either. So, since I use handfulls of chopped parsley in just the kind of situation you describe, and since many people sub parsley for cilantro in many different kindsof recipes, I think doing so in your Algerian recipe will be the way to go. Give it some underneath extra flavor. Gotta remember to order the greens!

Thanks, again!