Five Ways to Cook and Serve Swiss Chard -- Harvest to Table

Swiss chard can be served raw or cooked. Swiss chard leaves have a hearty, yet mild spinach flavor. Swiss chard stalks have a delicate, celery-like taste and crunch.

Serve chard greens raw alone or in a mixed green salad. You can also cook chard greens just like spinach.

Table of Contents

Favorite Swiss chard recipes

Chard Soup Made Simply

chard salad — Fresh chard leaves with peaches, blueberries, and pieces of gorgonzola cheese

Swiss chard, chard, silverbeet, spinach beet, leaf beat, sea kale, Swiss beet, sea kale beet, Indian spinach—are all the same vegetables. Don’t get dizzy!

The season for Swiss chard is spring through late fall.

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How to choose Swiss chard

Select Swiss chard with fresh evenly colored green leaves that are moist, crisp, and not wilted. The stalks should be juicy and crisp and unblemished.

How to store Swiss chard

Wrap Swiss chard unwashed in a damp paper towel and place it in a plastic bag in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days. Rinse and dry cut the leaves thoroughly before storing.
Swiss chard leaves can be frozen for up to 6 months in the same way as spinach. Remove the stem and center rib, blanch the leaves, and then chill them in an ice-water bath before freezing.

How to prepare Swiss chard

Wash Swiss chard carefully before using it to get rid of sand and soil trapped in the leaves.
Cut fibrous chard stalks off near the base and peel off any tough strings.
The key to success with chard in the kitchen is treating the leaves and stalks like two different vegetables. Swiss chard leaves cook quickly while the wide inner ribs and stalks take time. The two are best prepared separately.

Chard leaves on toast — Toasts with baby Swiss chard leaves, avocado paste, and shrimp

Swiss chard serving suggestions

Serve Swiss chard raw or cooked.
Tender fresh chard leaves are good in salads. Swiss chard thinnings can also be used in salads. Use cooked, chopped chard leaves in recipes calling for spinach.
Cut or tear the leaves from the stems and use them to line salad bowls or mix them with other torn greens in a salad. Make a layer of chard leaves in a casserole of scalloped potatoes or turnips.
Sprinkle tender, raw Swiss chard leaves with olive oil, garlic, and lemon. Season cooked Swiss chard leaves with a piece of salt pork or bacon.

Stewing lentils and chard — Stewing Swiss chard, lentils, sweet potatoes

Swiss chard cooking suggestions

Many cooks prefer to cook chard leaves and stems separately since the ribs take longer to cook. If you do this, you can combine the two after cooking or serve them separately.

The thinner chard is sliced the quicker it will cook. Overcooked chard will be soft and mushy. If you’re simmering or boiling chard, use acidulated water to prevent the leaves and stalks from darkening during cooking.

Cook Swiss chard leaves and stems separately since the ribs take longer to cook. Combine the two after cooking or serve them separately.
Cut Swiss chard mid-ribs and stalks into pieces two or three inches long and simmer them until tender. Serve them hot with butter or chilled with a light vinaigrette. You can cook and serve chard stalks just like asparagus.
Blanch Swiss chard stalks in salted water for 1 or 2 minutes or until tender.
Simmer sliced or diced stalks in a covered container for 5 to 10 minutes. To simmer whole bunches cut into quarters or individual ribs allow 10 to 20 minutes.
Steam Swiss chard leaves as you would beet greens or spinach. Steam the leaves in just the water that remains on the leaves after washing. Steam long enough for the leaves to wilt, 3 to 6 minutes.
Steam Swiss chard stalks for 10 to 20 minutes. Braise stalks in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes. Sauté or stir-fry small chard pieces until tender.
Cook and serve Swiss chard stems as you would asparagus or celery. Cooked chard can be served warm or cold. Serve cooked stalks with Mornay or hollandaise sauce or with a vinaigrette.
Add sliced stalks to soups and stews. (Rhubarb chard makes a colorful thickener for soups and stews.)
Add diced stalks to the cream of potato soup.
Cut up Swiss chard leaves and stalks and use them in stir-fries with sliced water chestnuts.
Cook Swiss chard leaves and stalks in acidulated water to prevent them from darkening during cooking.

How to simmer Swiss chard

Wash the Swiss chard to be rid of any grit. Separate the leaves and stems and then roughly chop them into strips.
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.
Cook the stems first until almost tender, about 5 minutes.
Add the chopped leaves
Continue to cook until both stems and leaves are tender, another 2 or 3 minutes.
Drain and serve hot with butter, olive oil, or vinegar. To serve cold, stop the cooking in ice water before adding the dressing.

How to sauté Swiss chard

Cut chard leaf by leaf—cut the outer leaves first allowing the inner leaves to grow larger–or cut away the whole plant one inch (2.5 cm) above the soil.

Chard leaves have a hearty, yet mild spinach flavor. Chard stalks have a delicate, celery-like taste and crunch.

To get a bit of both flavor and texture sauté chard for 2 to 3 minutes after slicing leaves and stalks together crosswise.

Here’s how we sautéed our just picked from the garden chard to match the delicate flavor of grilled orange roughy: slice crosswise 6 to 8 chard leaves, place in a pan with 4 or 5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, one or two medium garlic cloves chopped, and a dash of lemon-pepper to taste; sauté over a medium flame until just tender-crunchy and sprinkle with fresh lemon juice before serving.

Sautéed chard comes together so fast and is so flavorful that you will find yourself bringing it to the table all summer.

The key to flavorful chard is to make sure you don’t overcook it. Chard cooked in less than 3 minutes will preserve its mild, sweet flavor.

Wash the Swiss chard to be rid of any grit. Separate the leaves and stems and then roughly chop them.
Place olive oil in a large, deep skillet over medium-low heat.
Add a bit of minced garlic and cook until the garlic begins to color about 5 minutes.
Add the Swiss chard and cook stirring until the leaves are wilted and tender, about 2 to 5 minutes.

Before adding the Swiss chard, you can add other vegetables–bell peppers, onions, zucchini, currants, pine nuts, and pumpkin seeds. Add a squeeze of lemon juice before serving.

How to braise Swiss chard

Wash the Swiss chard then separate the leaves and ribs and then roughly chop them into strips.
Slice a large onion and set it into a large skillet or saucepan that can hold all of the chard leaves.
Simmer the onions in olive oil until they soften.
Add the Swiss chard leaves with salt and pepper to taste, cover and cook for 20 to 30 minutes over medium-low heat stirring occasionally.
Cook until the leaves are tender.

How to make Swiss chard soup

Rinse the 2 gallons of Swiss chard leaves to be rid of all dirt and grit. (Press the leaves into a measuring cup to know you have 2 gallons.)
Cut the leaves crosswise into ¼ inch slices.
In a wide saucepan, sauté diced onions in olive oil until they are translucent, 2 or 3 minutes.
Add salt and a bit of minced garlic and 3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast; cook another 5 minutes.
Add the Swiss chard and cover to steam until wilted, stirring occasionally.
Add 2 cups of boiling vegetable stock and simmer until the greens are tender.
For a creamy soup, pour the mix into a blender and blend to an even consistency then return to the stove and heat.
Add grated cheese if you like, then salt and pepper to taste, and garnish with basil leaves.

Swiss chard flavor partners

Swiss chard has a flavor affinity for anchovy, capers, cured meats, cured olives, garlic, hot chile pepper, lemon, olive oil, onions, orange and lemon zest, raisins and currants, sweet spices, and vinegar.

Swiss chard nutrition

Swiss chard contains vitamin C, calcium, potassium, and iron. Red cultivars contain vitamin A.
The nutritive values of Swiss chard are nearly equal to spinach.

Chard near harvest — Swiss chard near harvest

Get to know Swiss chard

Swiss chard is a member of the beet family with succulent stems but no large, fleshy beetroot.
Swiss chard is a cool-season biennial grown as an annual. The plant has large, deep green crinkly leaves and either white ribs and stems or beet red ribs and stems depending upon the variety. “Chards” is the name given to this plant’s stems or stalks.
Swiss chard leaves are similar to beet greens but larger and wider and flatter. Chard stalks grow from 12 to 16 inches (30-40 cm) tall and the leaves to 8 inches (20 cm) across.
Common chard varieties have silvery celery-like stalks. Rhubarb chard has fat, scarlet stems, and rainbow chard has multicolored stems of chartreuse, pink, bright orange, magenta, cherry, yellow and white. The deeper the color of the chard stalks the stronger the flavor.
Swiss chard–like beets–were developed from wild sea beets growing along the Mediterranean Sea. Chard may have grown in ancient Babylon in Persia. Both the Greeks and Romans cultivated chard, and the Romans introduced chard to northern Europe.
The word chard is derived from carde the Latin and French word for thistle. Both chard and cardoon–which is a thistle plant—are grown for their similar-looking stalks. The Romans used the same word for both plants and the two plants were confused for centuries.
In the nineteenth century, to end the confusion of cardoon and chard, seed catalogs began adding the word “Swiss” to distinguish chard from the unrelated but look-alike cardoon.
Chard–like beets–were developed from wild sea beets growing along the Mediterranean Sea. Chard may have grown in ancient Babylon in Persia. Both the Greeks and Romans cultivated chard, and the Romans introduced chard to northern Europe.
The word chard is derived from carde the Latin and French word for thistle. Both chard and cardoon–which is a thistle plant—are grown for their similar-looking stalks. The Romans used the same word for both plants and the two plants were confused for centuries.
In the nineteenth century, to end the confusion of cardoon and chard, seed catalogs began adding the word “Swiss” to distinguish chard from the unrelated but look-alike cardoon.

Cicla in the botanical name for chard, Beta vulgaris var. cicla, is derived from the Latin sicula which refers to Sicily; one of the first places chard was cultivated.

Swiss chard articles at Harvest to Table:

How to Plant and Grow Swiss Chard

Swiss Chard Seed Starting Tips

Growing Swiss Chard in Containers

How to Harvest and Store Swiss Chard

Five Ways to Cook and Serve Swiss Chard

Chard Soup Made Simply

Beets and Swiss Chard Growing Problems Troubleshooting

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