{"id":88436,"date":"2026-02-03T16:40:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T23:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=88436"},"modified":"2026-02-10T10:12:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:12:47","slug":"swiss-chard-recipes-cooking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/swiss-chard-recipes-cooking\/","title":{"rendered":"Give your body the gift of more heart-healthy vegetables \u2014 like delicious, red Swiss chard"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you’re looking for new vegetables to add to your kitchen repertoire, try these Swiss chard recipes. This versatile leafy green offers color, flavor and plenty of nutrition. Photo by Bill St. John, for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Valentine\u2019s Day is soon upon us, couples and solos alike. Here\u2019s to a \u201cheart-healthy\u201d vegetable \u2014 Swiss chard \u2014 that, in one of its varieties, comes in the color red, all the more so for your valentine.<\/p>\n

No one is quite sure why this leafy green is called \u201cSwiss\u201d chard, mainly by English speakers. Other languages and peoples call it merely \u201cchard\u201d or prefix that word with one of its colors. We Americans invented the \u201crainbow chard\u201d label for the array of pink, magenta, orange and off-yellow that chard can sport in the produce section.<\/p>\n

The story behind Swiss chard and its not-so-Swiss name<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For white chard, the most widely grown and oldest variety, the British often use a more precise color \u2014 celadon \u2014 a sort of jade-tinged ivory.<\/p>\n

The \u201cSwiss\u201d part of the name is odd because chard\u2019s scientific Latin name is Beta vulgaris var. cicla<\/em>, this last word a probable reference to Sicily, for chard originated in the Mediterranean Basin and remains very popular as an eating vegetable in southern France, throughout Italy and on the Mediterranean Sea\u2019s many islands. The Balearic Islanders make a pocket from its leaves filled with pine nuts and raisins, then steam it, a clear throwback to the region’s Arabian influence.<\/p>\n

As its Latin name suggests, it is a member of the beet family, though, unlike the beet, chard forms no edible root. We eat only its magnificent leaves and sturdy stems (which sometimes reach two feet in length), considered by ancient Mediterraneans as a substitute for celery.<\/p>\n

Because the ancient Latin and old French word for chard meant \u201cthistle,\u201d one scholar believes that the prefix \u201cSwiss\u201d was used to distinguish chard unmistakably from thistle, a much gnarlier and not easily approached, well, weed. (An edible version of thistle is grown and called \u201ccardoon.\u201d) But again, why \u201cSwiss,\u201d no one appears to know or by whom.<\/p>\n

How to prepare and cook Swiss chard for the best flavor<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Chard is sturdier than spinach and is also less bitter. It does share with spinach the slight bitterness of oxalic acidity (you know this acidity as the defining bitterness of rhubarb), but, in chard, the acidity is tempered with greater sweetness.

Get more great tips and recipes<\/a> from Bill St. John. <\/div>\n

Unless the chard leaf is very young and small, cooks worldwide need to prepare its leaves separately from its stems, perhaps why so many do not, and simply pitch the stems. Chard has been called \u201cthe chicken of greens\u201d because its two parts, like the fowl\u2019s breast and thigh, need different or varying applications of heat and are difficult to cook simultaneously in the same pan.<\/p>\n

But the stems have more \u201cchard-y\u201d flavor than the leaves, so cook them as well. Cleaned and chopped, stem pieces take a mere few minutes more heat. They also add a pleasant crunch. It\u2019s no good to toss away all that.<\/p>\n

Saut\u00e9ed chard leaves retain more texture than the same treatment of spinach; they soften toothsomely well before disassembling. To render them silken like raw, damp seaweed, cook them in a wet environment (in soups, or with soft-cooked eggs, or under a sauce) for a bit longer than a quick saut\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\"Red
Red chard leaves are perfect for Swiss chard recipes. Photo by Bill St. John, for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Recipe: Red Chard Ribbons<\/strong>\u2028<\/strong><\/h2>\n


\n<\/strong>Adapted by Bill St. John from a recipe for Garlicky Swiss Chard in \u201cVegetables Illustrated\u201d (America\u2019s Test Kitchen, 2019). Serves 4-6 as a side or topping.<\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/strong><\/h3>\n