It's entirely up to you.

Most leafy green vegetables have a stem which is thicker and sturdier than the leaf. Tonight I cooked bok choy by the typical method, which is to separate the stalks from the leaves and cook the stalks for a while before adding the leaves. I would cook chard the same way. There are certain varieties of chard whose stalk is huge and is the main attraction. You probably would not choose those.

Jim

We love chard. I make it often over the summer. The stalks go into the compost pile.

Read one post sometime back about peeling the stems before cooking. Supposed to make them very tender. Never tried it myself - our stem go to the compost pile too.

I make braised chard and I used to compost the stems (hated the stems at first). Then I was at a friends house when she was making greens and beans. She added the stems chopped up earlier then the leaves, after the onions had cooked alone for a few minutes. When they are cooked longer they are delicious, when my 3 year old was 1 1/2 he would only eat the stems.

-Robin

Like Robin's friend, I chop them into small pieces and saute them then toss the greens in the pot and cover it to steam the greens. I like them with garlic and a couple dashes of vinegar and soy sauce.

With many leafy greens it is a shame not to use the thick stalks because they have more bulk than the leaves. Usually cooking the stalks longer than the leaves makes a good dish. This is especially true of veggies such as bok choy which have a thick stalk which can be sliced up in bite size pieces. Thin stems of spinach or the thinner stemmed varieties of chard may not be worth the effort. Suit yourself.

Jim

In the Los Angeles area of California, in some of the top end asian ethnic restaurants, you can order a fancy dish that is entirely swiss chard stems in a sauce. I had a Taiwanese friend who considered it a real delicasy (eating swiss chard stems). He would have been shocked that people throw them away. I like many, put the stalks to cook a few minutes before the greens and I find myself picking out the big pieces of stem to eat before the greens because they do taste different and I find them very good to eat. Jim in So. Calif.

I have found that slicing chard stems at a very sharp diagonal, so that each piece actually has more cut surface than uncut surface makes the stems cook almost as quickly as the greens.

I generally stir fry chard, and I like the stems to retain a bit of crunch, so I toss them around in the pan for a few seconds to coat them with whatever oil I'm using, and then top them off with the wet greens. The water on the greens sizzles and steams the stems while the stems keep the greens from cooking too fast. After a minute or so, I toss the whole thing together and finish off the cooking.

I love them with olive oil, garlic & Meyer lemon juice. Or I use veg oil with a few drops of Chinese sesame oil, some slightly pre-softened dried apricots or golden raisins, and some toasted sesame seeds or coarsely chopped toasted peanuts or pecans. Or olive oil, orange slices & a balsamic drizzle.

I guess you can tell I love chard!

Yum, rachel. Well, y'all are getting me over my initial aversion, I think. I don't think it will be too hard to try them now. I don't know why I get like that sometimes about vegetables. I have a harder time with meat. A veg is just a veg, lol. Any other suggestions are welcome.

I use the stems in place of celery. If I am using the leaves, I'll saute garlic and the stems, then add some sort of chili, usually hot, add the greens, toss them together, and add a splash of vinegar, usually muscadine or cane vinegar to just barely wilt the greens. I like my vegies/greens a bit al dente. Bright Lights stems really are pretty when cut into small pieces, and they can't hurt in a stir fry.

Here is a link to a recipe with a picture.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: Swiss Chard Stalks

You can also steam them and then do them as a gratin in a cheese sauce like cauliflower.

Thank you everyone. Next time I harvest some I'll give it a shot. Jimster, thanks for the pic... really pretty dish. I like your thinking flora. Cheese makes everything good, lol.

Thanks again and enjoy your Chard. :)

I always put them in the pan a minute or two before the leaves, and I find they are my favorite part of the chard! I make an effort to harvest as much of the stem as possible when harvesting, because they are so good.

They are definitely not something to try raw though!

Tonight's dinner was Swiss Chard Tart. OMG, it was good!

I'm not growing chard this year but a fellow gardener offered me some and mentioned he had it in a tart last night. That did it. I had to make the tart.

The cut up stems were sauteed with chopped onions. The shredded leaves were added and briefly sauteed. Seasonings were added.

Three eggs were beaten with about a cup of grated cheese. Everything was combined in a pie shell and baked for 30 min. at 375°F.

Superb!

Jim

That tart sounds good Jim. It made me realize that I haven't made a tart in a long time. Somewhere around here I have a recipe for an onion tart (it's eggless) that's excellent. I used to make it often enough that I stopped using the recipe, and now that I haven't made it for ages, I can't remember the particulars...I'll have to dig around.

The recipe you linked to made me blink...simmer for 30 minutes? Wouldn't they just turn into mush? They don't look like mush in the picture.

I haven't had swiss chard since I was a kid and grew some this spring. I don't know if it was how long I cooked it or what, but it was tough as shoe leather. I gave some to a cousin who hated it too. Kinda put us off.

I planted another variety in July and tried it as a baby green cooking it like some of you in this thread. Chopped the stems and cooked them first and it was delicious.

I need to try the first batch planted and see if cooking it longer or another way will make it tender.

rachelellen and jims recipes look good too. Glad I read this thread. And to think never-give-up almost gave up on swiss chard, I must go slap myself with a wet noodle.lol

Once the leaves are old and tough they will not get tender by cooking, however long. You need to pick younger more tender leaves to start with.

jim's Swiss recipe says 30 mins or "until tender", so I suppose you could just test it and stop before it turns to mush.

Large leaves can be tender if they are grown quickly, basically by providing enough moisture and some nutrients. It's just the age of the slowly grown large ones that makes them tough.

Jim

Thanks flora uk and Jim. If cooking them longer doesn't do the trick then maybe cutting the first planted ones back, then cutting them earlier will work. I'll add a little natural fertilizer and pay better attention to their watering.

Thanks for the tips!

never-give-up:

I grow Swiss chard every summer. We love it. When I harvest it I take the leaves from about 2/3s of the way up from the bottom. Don't take those large leaves from near the bottom. The younger are the more tender leaves. Make sure the plants are not wilted from the summer sun and heat when harvested. Keep them well watered. I simmer them until they're tender and no longer. For flavoring I add either butter, bacon grease (rare treat) or olive oil with garlic, salt and pepper. They're also good simmered in chicken bullion if you're not salt restricted.

re toughness - I am commenting from the perpective of a climate where chard is a hardy vegetable which overwinters and can be harvested pretty much all year round. Therefore when the new leaves start growing in spring you need to make sure you are not picking old leaves which have sat outdoors since last summer. Obviously if chard is a summer vegetable in your area this will be less of a problem.

I combined greenhouser's tips last night: the olive oil with garlic and as it dried added low sodium chicken broth and it was very good. Thanks flora uk. Was thinking about trying to overwinter one patch with mulch.

trsinc have you found a way to cook it to your likeing yet?

No, never g u, I haven't yet. I only have two large plants which were near a cucumber that had some sort of bug infestation that spread to them. So, I removed all the large leaves and stems and just have the inner, very small leaves at the moment. I'll have to wait until they get big or the new little seedlings do. I've got about 15 of the red chard coming up. Seems like I bought the red at the store years ago and really loved it. This is the first time for me to grow either one. They do so well here in our heat I don't understand why farmer's don't grow it. You usually can't even find it here, for sale, and when you do it's about 3.00 for a small bunch.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to some of these yummy recipes soon!

A man who ran a veggie stand in town told me he doesn't sell chard because it wilts too easily. You would think the stores with those water spray systems would have it. Perhaps chard doesn't respond well to that either and still wilts.

When I buy chard, if it's a bit wilty, I cut the end of the stems and soak them in water like cut flowers for a couple of hours. Then they go in the fridge, wrapped in a towel, in a plastic bag. Chard lasts a long time in the fridge, if it is nicely plumped with water before refrigerating.

Chard is sold in supermarkets here but, at those prices, having your own supply in the garden is luxurious.

Try that tart. Mmmmm. It's a great leftover too, so make extra. If you are afraid to make the pie crust, as I am, buy one of the good prepared crusts in the frozen foods section. That makes it extremely easy.

Jim

I'm fine with pie crust. My stepmother, who could make a pie from the request by my father to the oven in about 7 minutes flat, taught me.

I'm nowhere near as good or fast as she is at it, but my pie crusts improved immeasurably once she took me in hand.

Tart shells though, are usually a bit more dense. Do you just use a pie crust pastry recipe or a different one?

I use a regular pie crust recipe when I make the crust. This time I used an Orinoque Orchards brand frozen crust, which was inexpensive, surprisingly good and made the whole procedure a cinch.

Jim