Recipe courtesy of Simply Recipes.com
Swiss Chard is one of the vegetables we grew this summer, and for the last few weeks we have harvested the small, tender leaves to put in our salads. I’ve heard that when Swiss Chard is matured that it is bitter-tasting. The stem did have a bitter taste to me, but the thick, velvety leaves were not bitter at all. Because of that, I prepared them like I would prepare kale; I washed each leaf, then I folded the leaf in half and removed the stem as far up the leaf as possible.
Swiss chard in the garden bed
I used 12 leaves when I made this recipe tonight, and I probably could easily have used three times as many Swiss chard leaves because the amount of shrinkage was incredible. Also, the recipe says to cook the Swiss chard for five minutes, flip the greens, then cook for five more minutes. I found that amount of time to be excessive (maybe because I only used 12 leaves), and I will probably only cook them for five minutes total when I make them again. They had a wonderful flavor thanks to the garlic, and a nice bite thanks to the red pepper flakes. To me, Swiss chard tastes a lot like spinach, and it cooks up like spinach, too. I’m looking forward to eating this again soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients
1 large bunch Swiss Chard
1 clove garlic, sliced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons water
crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon butter
salt
Directions
1. Rinse the Swiss chard leaves thoroughly, pat dry with a paper towel. Fold the leaves in half and remove the stalk. Roughly chop the leaves 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.
3. Add the chopped Swiss chard leaves. Cover. Check after about 5 minutes. If it looks dry, add a couple tablespoons of water.
4. 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).
5. Add salt to taste, and a small amount of butter. Remove the Swiss chard to a serving dish.
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