Chard and Eggs

Chard is a great vegetable. It's easy to grow and grows practically year-round. Beginning gardeners can get a lot of satisfaction from a few chard plants. Chard comes in several varieties, most commonly green and red. The red, with its magenta spines and veins, is both beautiful and tasty.

Chard is very easy to cook and can be a slightly more substantial substitute for spinach in many recipes. I like to simply chop and saute chard in a skillet with a small amount of butter over low heat. Cover the skillet until the chard is wilted, then remove the cover, turn up the heat, and cook off the liquid. Be sure to rinse the chard well to remove any grit before cooking. There's no need to dry it, though. Just chop it and pop it in the pan. You can cut off and compost any woody parts of the stems, or feed them to the chickens - they seem to love chard. Add and little salt and pepper to your cooked chard and you've got a simple and tasty side dish.

If you want to get fancy, you can start by sauteing a little red onion or green garlic before sauteing the chard, as chard goes well with both of these flavors.

Once you've sauteed the chard you can make a lovely meal by topping it with a poached or fried egg. Omnivores might enjoy including a slice of cooked ham or crumbled bacon.

Another way to eat chard is with scrambled eggs. Once the chard is cooked and liquid has cooked off, scramble some eggs in a bowl and add it to the hot skillet. Turn down the heat and stir the eggs with the chard until done. Season with salt and pepper. You can make this dish much richer by adding a little cream cheese or goat cheese chopped into small chunks just before the eggs are done. Stir in the cheese until it gets warm, but don't let the cheese melt entirely. Maintain the integrity of the chunks.

Chard is wonderful in quiche, too. Check out our Silver Lake Farms cooking classes where we'll be making chard quiche.

Enjoy!

Shelley