Best uses for Swiss Chard stems?

[Artichoke Lover]

have you eaten any of the common spring greens or other greens mixes from the store? often those have beet greens or baby chard in them.

Yes we buy spring mix sometimes I don’t hate it but I’m not a big fan. I don’t like fresh greens much other than spinach and lettuce. I do like cooked greens though. My main reason for growing chard is a cooking substitute for spinach, I’m also going to try a few others like Malabar and New Zealand spinach if I can get seeds.

 

[valley ranch]

Greetings, Well assuming you mean the part you can eat ~ I like them steamed and eaten with mayonnaise ~
Aunty Alase use to make Sarma with the leaves ~ shad lav e ~ very good it is ```

 

[flowerbug]

Yes we buy spring mix sometimes I don’t hate it but I’m not a big fan. I don’t like fresh greens much other than spinach and lettuce. I do like cooked greens though. My main reason for growing chard is a cooking substitute for spinach, I’m also going to try a few others like Malabar and New Zealand spinach if I can get seeds.

don't be surprised if there is more of a taste to it than you expect, but if you like cooked spinach and other greens i think you can handle it.

in those mixes if you've noticed some leaves with red stalks/veins those are likely baby swiss chard.

 

[Dahlia]

Martha Stewart has an excellent recipe that calls for swiss chard in an amazing lemon lasagna! It is one of my favs!

 

[Zeedman]

We add a lot of the thinly-sliced stems to the chard, when cooking or freezing. One of the things I like about chard is that the cooked vegetable has more substance than cooked spinach, almost meaty - and adding the chopped stem pieces reinforces that.

But we seldom use all the stems, and when the chard is coming on strong late in the season, there is more stem than we can use. DD came up with the idea of using the stems in a cream of celery soup recipe, and we tried it - it wasn't bad. The second time we added some of the leaves to green up the soup, and it was even better. We'll be doing more experimentation with that soup this year, using different fresh vegetables & seasonings.

 

[heirloomgal]

I love using the stems in any kind of vegetable soup, and the leaves can make excellent 'cabbage' rolls. I gave a large plant to a friend and she made a huge lot of 'cabbage' rolls for a dinner party. She said guests told her they were the best cabbage rolls they ever had. Swiss chard is a great substitute for spinach in Spanakopita (feta and spinach pie) too.