Does anybody have any ideas what I can do to make Chard ( "Bright Lights" ) more paletable? I tried it lightly boiled but it wasn't the best by any stretch and my kids insist it tastes of soil!
Any good Chard recipes??? Thanks.
I agree with the soil comment! It is quite nice in a curry in a replacement for spinach.
no offence but why do you all boil everything :-X.
i have no set recipes but I'll share a few ways i cook it and when i say seasoning i don't just mean salt and pepper, seasoning in the Caribbean means herbs and i use generally what i have in my garden (thyme, oregano, chives, spring onions, garlic, parsley, par-cel) but you can use what best suits your palette.
right here are some of the ways i cook it:
- stirfried with other veges with olive oil and seasonings at hand, salt and pepper to taste, sometimes if i want to add heat a chili or two.
- baked with other veges such as roots and squash medley or even some tomatoes thrown in, again using olive oil and herbs, especially garlic/ onions, salt and pepper to taste. i also like to uncover the pan in the last 5 to 10 minutes and fan grill to make the surface of the veg a little crispy.
- to make rice a little more interesting, i lightly stirfry the chopped up leaves only in herbs and olive oil, salt and black pepper, trying to keep everything as dry as possible and when the leaves are partially wilted, i toss in cooked rice, mix the two things together and turn off the fire.
- you could also do the same with pasta which could be enhanced further by making a cheesy white sauce to mix in the dish IE just follow a spinach pasta sauce recipe but substitute the spinach leaves with chard leaves.
actually most spinach recipes would happily work with a chard substitute, so the possibilities are endless. happy cooking :D.
Quote from: pjb on October 30, 2009, 10:20:54
Does anybody have any ideas what I can do to make Chard ( "Bright Lights" ) more paletable? I tried it lightly boiled but it wasn't the best by any stretch and my kids insist it tastes of soil!
Any good Chard recipes??? Thanks.
I must say I have yet to make anything remotely paletable. I think it is the only food I have ever found that my OH will not eat. Very pretty on site though - brightens up the day. I will try baking it. Have tried boiling, steaming and frying. I have not tried it with a cheese sauce - might waste the cheese.
This is a nice recipe...
Swiss Chard and Potato Gratin
Preparation Time: 25 minutes
Cooking Time: 55 minutes
Serves: 4
Ingredients
500g Swiss chard
75g margarine
2tbsp plain flour
100g cheddar cheese
750g potatoes
4 garlic cloves
600ml (1 pint) milk
salt and pepper
Instructions
1. Remove and roughly chop the green part of the chard leaves. Cut the stalks into 2cm lengths and steam for 10 mins. Stir in the green leaves and continue to cook for a few minutes.
2. Wash the potatoes and cut into 1cm slices. Boil for 5 mins until just tender. Drain.
3. Grease a shallow baking dish and layer with half of the potatoes, the chard and then the remaining potatoes.
To make the sauce:
1. melt the margarine and fry the crushed garlic for 2 mins. Stir in the flour and continue stirring for 1 min.
2. Gradually add the milk, stirring continuously until the sauce thickens.
3. Add half the grated cheese and season with salt and pepper.
4. Pour the sauce over the vegetables and top with the remaining cheese. Bake at 180° Mark 4 for 35 mins.
Duke
I usually wilt th eleaves or shred them for serving like spinach. The stalks can be steamed and served with herby or spicy butter or stir fried and they make a good tart too.
Here are some more recipies to consider: http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=Swiss+chard
I have added some to a lasagna and use it chopped in stir fries - I admit it's not the best on its own though...
We like it on its own.
:P :P :P :P
i like it on its own too or stir fried with some chopped bacon !!
Duke
Quote from: thifasmom on October 30, 2009, 10:54:27
to make rice a little more interesting, i lightly stirfry the chopped up leaves only in herbs and olive oil, salt and black pepper, trying to keep everything as dry as possible and when the leaves are partially wilted, i toss in cooked rice, mix the two things together and turn off the fire.[/color
You could always make stir fried rice with it like above but add a beaten egg and a few cashew nuts into it at the end
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I have to admit that the one time I grew it. It got composted after attempting to steam and stir fry. The flavour was not to our pallates and frankly it was just spoiling the rest of the food on the plate. So I was not prepared to spoil another dish by using it.
We do like spinach, very much and were told we would enjoy it as it was very similar but it is like saying if you like butter you will like margarine.
To me, it has that odd taste which along with bananas and cucumber, I hope I am never hungry enough to be forced to eat.
A matter of personal preference.
I have quite a lot. Never managed to grow it well before. It will be hitting the compost bin very soon.
I use the leaves like spinach (like most other posters) and the stalks like celery. An important thing for me is to pick them young. I always leave a couple of plants to grow large because they are colourful and beautiful, but yes , they end up in the compost because as they age they get bitter. The other ones get cropped young and tasty on a cut and come again basis so they keep producing new leaves. I don't have any chard specific recipes I just use as I've said. That could include roasted, baked, stir-fried, in soup or stews or curries.Like Thifasmom says, the addition of a variety of herbs and/or spices can significantly improve the flavour of most things.
Make a chard and ricotta canelloni
Cook the chard
chop and mix with ricotta and and herbs you may like
wrap round with cooked lasagna sheets
cover with tomato then sprinkle with cheese
bake
YUM
PS I could never write a recipe book!
Quotethey end up in the compost because as they age they get bitter
Perhaps this is the answer. Perhaps I have waited too long before picking it. Perhaps I will try cutting all the leaves off and seeing if anything sprouts anew. Works well with old beetroot.
cook some spaghetti
fry garlic in oil, sprinkle flaked chilli, add lots of chopped chard.
Drain spaghetti
pot garlic/chard mix in with pasta, add olive oil, season and lemon zest
sprinkle with parmesan
Eat once a week!
Poifeck
Quote from: Digeroo on October 31, 2009, 09:22:29
Quotethey end up in the compost because as they age they get bitter
Perhaps this is the answer. Perhaps I have waited too long before picking it. Perhaps I will try cutting all the leaves off and seeing if anything sprouts anew. Works well with old beetroot.
wow they really say different strokes for different folks :), i like to leave mine to get quite large, well probably medium sized approx 8" to 10" before cutting as the flavours are nice and strong.
hmm go figure :-\.
here are a few more recipes, from a blog i follow. her recipes so far have not steered me wrong.
http://allotment2kitchen.blogspot.com/2009/10/rainbow-chard-tart.html (http://allotment2kitchen.blogspot.com/2009/10/rainbow-chard-tart.html)
Ah 8-10 inches I eat. It's when they get bigger than that. The huge ones are incredibly beautiful, especially in winter.
Thifasmom - that's a gerat looking site with useful info. Thanks for the link.
Chard and sprouts - both love 'em or loathe 'em veggies, it seems. I'm in the former camp 8) Wonderful earthy taste! A plate of shredded, wilted chard tossed in olive oil+garlic+chilli covered with a spritz of lemon? Bliss! And Biscombe's canneloni recipe is also good and you can substitute crepes for pasta, which is how I first learned the recipe.
But really, if the earthy (or robust? ;)) taste is a turn-off for you, best to accept that you just don't like it. It's very hard to disguise ;D
I so agree tho with Thifas' general comment about the Brits' propensity to just boil vegetables, even if these days they might be steamed and eaten al dente ;) - same difference? Obviously people here, from the recipes they post, are enthusiastic and knowledgeable vegetable cooks, but I feel you're a minority group in the general scheme of things. Even restaurants here, while describing the meat/fish dishes in great detail on the menu, invariably add, almost as an afterthought, "served with seasonal vegetables" - which will be whatever the kitchen has - boiled, steamed and, if you're lucky, come al dente ;D
try this website for recipes (it american so you will need to convert), has really usefull ratings and comments from people who have made things...
www.epicurious.com
Also have recently seen a recipe in one of my cookbooks (can't remember which one) for a sort of swiss chart tart (using only the stems) that sounded tasty. Probably involing cream and cheese.
Dont compost just yet, you may find you like the stems but not the leaves.
Quote from: TISH on November 02, 2009, 08:08:40
Dont compost just yet, you may find you like the stems but not the leaves.
Good point Tish - and yes they are quite different from the leaves
and Hyacinth - couldn't agree more, most of the attention does seem to go on the meat and fish, unless of course you go to a veggie restaurant ;)
OH always boils chard... too such an extent that it is referred to as "Charred" in our house... :-X
The plants look great but perpetual spinach/leaf beet is popular here... :-\
Quote from: thifasmom on November 01, 2009, 00:31:58
here are a few more recipes, from a blog i follow. her recipes so far have not steered me wrong.[/color]
http://allotment2kitchen.blogspot.com/2009/10/rainbow-chard-tart.html (http://allotment2kitchen.blogspot.com/2009/10/rainbow-chard-tart.html)
What imaginative cooking! Thanks for posting that.
Just wondering do the different varieties have different tastes, textures? I find I very much like the sibilla chard I'm growing, but it's not the most handsome.
Actually, I think simple cooking is a positive aspect of British cooking if done right using top vegetables. It's something I really craved living abroad and found that a lot of vegetables I bought and cooked myself in that way tasted of absolutely nothing because they were bred for dishes with so many spices and flavours that you wouldn't notice.
Of course, nice to do it in other ways too sometimes.
Quote from: Obbelix on November 01, 2009, 10:45:53
Thifasmom - that's a gerat looking site with useful info. Thanks for the link.
Quote from: earlypea on November 02, 2009, 08:36:45
Quote from: thifasmom on November 01, 2009, 00:31:58
here are a few more recipes, from a blog i follow. her recipes so far have not steered me wrong.[/color]
http://allotment2kitchen.blogspot.com/2009/10/rainbow-chard-tart.html (http://allotment2kitchen.blogspot.com/2009/10/rainbow-chard-tart.html)
What imaginative cooking! Thanks for posting that.
glad you both like it. i found her blog this year and her recipe postings have re-lit my fire for more creative cooking, iykwim :)
Quote from: Hyacinth on November 02, 2009, 00:02:50
Chard and sprouts - both love 'em or loathe 'em veggies, it seems. I'm in the former camp 8) Wonderful earthy taste! A plate of shredded, wilted chard tossed in olive oil+garlic+chilli covered with a spritz of lemon? Bliss! And Biscombe's canneloni recipe is also good and you can substitute crepes for pasta, which is how I first learned the recipe.
But really, if the earthy (or robust? ;)) taste is a turn-off for you, best to accept that you just don't like it. It's very hard to disguise ;D
Quote from: TISH on November 02, 2009, 08:08:40
Dont compost just yet, you may find you like the stems but not the leaves.
have to agree with Hyacinth that the taste is defo very distinctive. but as Tish says removing the leaves would help reduce that taste. like some others here i also sometimes cook the stems separately from the leaves to create different tasting meals on differing days.
Crepes filled with chard (or spinach) with a white sauce over the top is a quick and easy lunch.
I am in the love it camp along with kale and sprouts:)
Swiss chard is a lovely easy veg to grow and is so beautiful to look at. I could not imagine my plot without it.
This year I grew perpetual spinach but prefer the taste of swiss chard.
Duke
I've a confession, too :-[...I've never separated leaves from stem - now on my 'must-do' list to see what you're all talking about :o
I find that perpetual spinach and 'ordinary' spinach also have different tastes and I like both ( but still love chard most of all :-*). Perpetual has a perpetual :P spot in my garden - for the regular spinach I've abandoned the attempt to grow it in the quantities I want, and thereby also avoid the frustration of it bolting, so buy it at B'ham's Bull Ring market - prime stuff 8)
Earlypea, I too lived abroad, and that's where I learned to cook. To find the many recipes for cooking the humble potato in a country where it wasn't the filler staple, opened both my eyes and my taste buds. :D, but I quite agree that sometimes simple is best, eg. a newly dug new potato simply boiled and buttered?; just that 'simple' equates boil equates 'always' for so many run-of-the-mill household cooks here for all their vegetables?
And thanks Thifas for the site - passed it on and bookmarked it for myself. Have I mentioned that I love vegetables and discovering new ways of using them? ;) ;D
Hyacinth - the stalks are nice (or I think so!) used as greens in a stir fry with some garlic/ginger/chilli/soy/sesame, the leaves can be added later cos they don't take as much cooking. Or use them in a gratin style dish
I've been flicking through Sophie Grigson's Vegetable Bible and she suggests you could use them like vine or cabbage leaves for stuffing (veggie or meat), sounds like it is worth a try
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