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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

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

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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