Cooking with Swiss Chard is easy!

Swiss chard goes well with so many foods that it’s hard to think of a meal that you couldn’t cook with this nutritious leafy green vegetable.  It’s a great healthy food to use in breakfast dishes, lunches, and a variety of supper dishes.

The only way I don’t recommend using it is in desserts.  (I’ll admit the thought of having a dessert made with it makes me…well, turn green, and I don’t mean green with envy!)

What is Swiss Chard?

Swiss chard is a leafy green vegetable that is available fresh throughout the year and easy to grow.  You can read more about the health benefits of this nutritious green vegetable and how to clean and store it in “Swiss chard: 7 questions answered about this nutritious vegetable.” The article also covers some of the most common questions that come up about Swiss chard.

But let’s get to some ideas on how you can easily add this great green vegetable to many of the meals you already prepare.

1) Sautee chard

This is one of the most basic ways to cook Swiss chard, but I list it first because it’s the gateway to making so many meals healthier by boosting the amount of low calorie, low carbohydrate, nutrient rich non-starchy vegetables in your meals.

Add a little olive oil to your pan and turn your stove on to medium heat, chop up the chard stems and leaves and toss them into the pan.  If the stems are quite wide, you may want to set them aside to use in another way.  Or, put them in the pan for a minute or two before you add in your leaves.  You can add a variety of flavorings to the pan at this time, depending on what you like.  Sometimes I don’t add anything.

2) Stuff an omelet with it

Whether you sautee your Swiss chard first or just cut it up into small pieces before tossing it in is up to you.  I’ve done both.  Then add any other vegetables or toppings you enjoy in an omelet.  It’s hard to think of anything you would put in an omelet that wouldn’t pair well with Swiss Chard!

3) Nest an egg in it

Here’s a delicious and easy way to start your day off with a non-starchy vegetable or add a non-starchy vegetable to “breakfast for dinner” night:

Sautee your Swiss chard until it’s just barely wilted.  Make a “nest” by putting a hole in it and then put an egg in the middle of it.  Cover the pan and wait until the egg is cooked to the way you like it.  Depending on how you like your egg, this is about 2 to 5 minutes.

A client who was seeing me for help managing her irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) told me this way of using chard made her realize that “going through the elimination phase and challenge phase of the low FODMAP diet didn’t have to mean boring meals!”  When I saw her months later, she was feeling great and enjoying a wide variety of foods.  She told me, “I  still make that chard and egg dish because makes me think I’m at a fancy brunch!”

4) Add chard to a stir fry

Here’s a way of using Swiss chard that has endless variations!   If the stems of your chard are quite wide, cut them up into about one inch pieces and add them to your stir fry about halfway through the cooking time.  Then just before your stir fry is done, toss in the coarsely cut leaves.  As soon as they are wilted, your stir fry is done.

Again, there are so many things you could pair with the chard.  This recipe idea works with just about any protein you can think of, including chicken, pork, beef, tofu, and even some seafood.

5) Use chard leaves in a salad

Although it’s technically not cooking with chard, I couldn’t leave out using chard in salad!  Like spinach, Swiss chard can be used in so many salads.  When the leaves are small I leave the stems on, especially if I’m using one of the colorful varieties of chard.  The brilliant reds and yellows of “rainbow chard” or “peppermint chard” make an early spring salad so pretty.

If the chard leaves are older, I will remove the stems and coarsely chop or rip the leaves for the salad.  Depending on who is eating the salad, I’ll sometimes chop the stems up for some crunch or save them for soup, saute, or stir fry.

6) Pair Swiss chard with beans

One of my favorite ways to use Swiss chard is a meal I created for nights when I need dinner on the table in 10 minutes or less.  Follow the directions for the sauteed chard above, but add some chopped onion, cooked beans, and some chicken sausage sliced into rounds.  Using the pre-cooked chicken sausage available in most grocery stores makes this a super fast meal for busy nights.

While many beans will work with this dish, I like to use chickpeas for their color and texture as well as their nutritional value.  (Read “Chickpea Nutrition: 9 Questions Answered About Garbanzo Beans” for why I recommend chickpeas to many of the people who see me for nutrition counseling sessions.)

7) Add it to soup

Add chopped chard leaves to a soup just before you’re serving it or when you’re reheating it.  You can even add it to canned soups to help boost the nutrition levels and get another non-starchy vegetable into your meal. This is another reason why keeping a container of washed and chopped chard leaves in your refrigerator is a good idea.

8) Put it into chili

Chop up the leaves and stems and toss your Swiss chard into your next batch of chili or white chili.  It’s another great way to add non-starchy vegetables to a meal that sometimes is lacking in non-starchy veggies.  (Yes, you could serve a salad on the side, but on a cold winter’s night, even I (who my husband calls the “veggie queen) will sometimes shudder at the thought of eating a salad.  Registered dietitians are human too!)

9) Pair chard with mushrooms

Sauteed chard and mushrooms is delicious, but don’t stop there!  Take that mixture and stuff a chicken breast with it.  Or add it to a breakfast wrap.  Or top a homemade pizza with it.

There are so many ways to cook Swiss chard

So we’ve covered nine ways to cook with Swiss chard and add it to many of the meals you probably already make.  There are many other ways you can use this nutritious leafy green vegetable, so I encourage you to experiment with it!  Making healthier meals can be fun, easy and enjoyable!

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