How do you eat chard?

[obsessed]

Cook it with some bacon and onions like you would collard greens. And for spice add a seranno pepper. or get crazy and add some corn. I think the green and the yellow is pretty.

 

[sheps4her]

thanks everyone! I can't wait to try those recipes!!!

 

[digitS']

If you like chard, and even if you don't because this is a little different, you should give "perpetual spinach" (click here) a try.

It has to be fairly closely related to chard but T & M calls it a "spinach beet" which isn't quite right. However, it reminds me more of beet greens but just with the green. In other words, there's no purple beet juice.

The "perpetual" is the same idea with the chard, it has a much longer season than spinach. I've enjoyed it right thru the growing season into the frosts of Autumn .

Steve

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi there,

I eat my chard as salad, when very tiny -- about 2" high. When large I cut the stem out & steam it & eat it with butter (the real stuff) & a spritz of lemon juice, like asparagus. The leaves you can stir fry , puree or steam, like spinach. I grow a huge amout of the coloured "Rainbow Chard" for a winter crop for both the chickens & myself. It is very hardy here & looks so pretty & cheerful I tend to use it in the flower beds even in my front garden. If it flops a bit in freezing weather it comes back again in late winter / early spring. It comes out, or goes to seed as I need to plant stuff for the summer. I think it's a very handsome plant and incredibly good value as both the chickens & I love it.

Try putting it into lasange as one of the layers, it's a good way to encourage children to eat it.

I've even seen a French recipe for a sweet & savoury tart -- it reminded me of medieval English pies & tarts. The French call it" blette".

Hope this helps. Happy Gardening this weekend! We have a public holiday here on Monday. Everyone rushes off the plant nurseries to stock up on bedding plants; I wait till Tuesday when they reduce everything to half-price.

:rose Hattie :rose

 

[Sylvie]

Swiss Chard Bake

1 potato, sliced thin
several Chard leaves, shredded (cut out the vein and roll the leaf to cut 1/2" pieces of the roll)If tiny young chard, use whole leaf.
1/2 c Fontal or Fontina cheese, shredded
1 Garlic clove, chopped
Heavy Cream or Half & Half
Salt and Pepper

Layer in a small baking dish the potatoes, chard, cheese, garlic, S & P.
Repeat; you should have a couple layers of each. Then top with cream till almost to level of top layer. Cover and bake at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi Sylvie,

Your recipe sounds delicious -- I'm certainly going to try that! My kind of food. Thank you! :bouquet

:rose Hattie :rose

 

[wifezilla]

Greens are healthy and can be delicious. The reason they go so well with bacon is not just flavor. Many vitamins in greens are fat soluble. Without bacon grease or butter, the vitamins in the greens are NOT able to be used by your body.

And, if you don't really like a particular type of green, thats why you need chickens or ducks. As pointed out earlier, they turn those greens in to yummy, vitamin rich eggs

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi wifezilla,

I didn't realise that about the vitamins being fat soluble & therefore needing the fat to break them down so they can be used. No wonder I eat so much bacon; I eat so many greens. My body craves BACON.......!!!

Thanks for the info. :bouquet

Have a great weekend. :tools

:rose Hattie :rose

 

[wifezilla]

I don't eat a lot of bacon even though I love the flavor. I tend to get puffy from pork. But I have a very large supply of butter on hand at all times

Maybe it's just because I came from Wisconsin...but butter is not optional at my house!

 

[obsessed]

I love butter. I get a kick out of the people who say butter bad but will eat margarine.