Slashfood Ate (8): Recipes for Swiss Chard

by Max Shrem, Posted Oct 21st 2008 @ 11:00AM

This Saturday, I was struck by the gorgeous vibrant red roots and shiny green leaves of the Swiss chard being sold at the farmer's market in Grand Army Plaza, in Brooklyn. Surprisingly, I never cooked Swiss chard before. Nevertheless, I left the market determined to eat some. When I got home, I steamed the chard and served it with butter and grey sea salt. The aroma from the kitchen made me feel as though I was lying outside on the ground of a vegetable garden.

For some reason, I thought that spinach and chard were so similar that it did not make a difference which one I'd choose to cook. Interestingly, by the nineteenth century, seed catalog publishers used the word Swiss to distinguish chard from French spinach varieties. If the chard is fresh and young, it can be eaten raw in salads. Since mature chard leaves and stalks become increasingly bitter, they're typically cooked or sauteed so that the bitterness fades.

Below are 8 recipes for Swiss chard: