Eat Your Greens! Rainbow Chard with a Maple-Vinegar Drizzle Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

What are 3 ways you can eat Swiss chard? ›

Chard can be steamed or sauteed, and it's great in soups, stews, casseroles, frittatas and quiches. Young leaves can be eaten raw in salads.

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, ginger, and chile and cook until tender and fragrant, 6 to 8 minutes. Add chard leaves, coconut milk, and water. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until chard is tender, 4 to 5 minutes.

Collards along with mustard and turnip greens have tougher and stronger flavor. Swiss or rainbow chard is from the spinach family. It has deep green crumpled leaves with either purplish, red, or yellow stems. Bok choy is from the cabbage family and means “white vegetable” in Chinese.

But frozen spinach is actually little different from cooked fresh spinach, and frozen chard is little different from frozen spinach. You can use frozen chard in puréed soups, chunky soups like minestrone, lasagna, tossed pasta, crêpes, quiche, saag paneer, and much else.

Kidney stone:

Swiss chard contains oxalates that may increase urinary oxalate excretion and predispose some individuals to calcium oxalate stones. As a result, anyone with kidney stones should avoid Swiss chard because oxalates may increase symptoms in certain people.

While both young and mature chard leaves are suitable for cooking, large leaves and mature leaves are firm and best suited for moist cooking methods, such as in soups, stews and braised dishes. They are also ideal for dry cooking methods such as stir-frying.

Boil Swiss chard for a healthier side dish.

Bring a pot of water to boil on the stove, and add several generous pinches of salt. Add the chopped stems from 3-4 leaves, and cook for 2-4 minutes until they're mostly tender. Place the leaves in the pot, and cover for 1-2 minutes. The leaves should be wilted.

Swiss Chard can be eaten raw, though it contains oxalic acid, so it may be better for you to eat it cooked. Cooking it also makes it less bitter. Is it healthy? This delicious sauteed Swiss chard recipe is loaded with vitamins and minerals and only 80 calories per serving.

Spinach have significantly more Vitamins A than chard. Spinach is an excellent source of Vitamin A, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Vitamin C, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium, Iron. Spinach is a great source of Thiamin, Niacin, Zinc, Phosphorus.

Swiss chard can be enjoyed raw in salads or on sandwiches or wraps, braised, boiled, sautéed or added to soups and casseroles. Here are some tips to incorporate more Swiss chard (leaves and stems) into the daily routine: Add a handful of fresh Swiss chard leaves to an omelet or scrambled eggs.

Is chard or kale healthier? ›

While both vegetables are rich in vitamins and minerals, they differ in their concentrations of certain nutrients. For example, kale is a better source of vitamin K, vitamin C, and calcium, while chard is higher in vitamin A and iron.

Raw leaves are a common addition to pre-packaged salads and can also add a big nutritional boost to smoothies. Another fun way to eat raw chard leaves is by using them as a healthy substitute to a tortilla for wraps and tacos. Some people even make their own pesto out of chard!

Add chopped raw chard to salads, especially with a lemon-juice vinaigrette. Raw chard can have an assertive taste, so start with a little and see what you think. Sauté chopped chard with diced onion, then use it as a filling in omelets or mixed into frittatas.

But like spinach, you can easily sauté it in some olive oil in just a few minutes. The stems can be tough. You can either remove them and discard, or boil and toss with butter: if some of the stems are tender, just sauté them first before adding the leaves, to give them more cooking time.

The leaves and stalks should be cooked separately, or the stems cooked a few minutes longer than the leaves, as they are firmer. Wash then cut the stalks from the leaves and leave whole or chop, as required. On some older leaves, you may need to cut out the ribs too. Leaves can be left whole or chopped, as required.