{"id":27577,"date":"2026-11-04T09:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T14:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=27577"},"modified":"2026-10-12T13:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T17:56:14","slug":"cooking-with-chard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2026\/11\/04\/cooking-with-chard\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooking with Chard"},"content":{"rendered":"
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istockphoto<\/p><\/div>\n

By Chef Nancy Berkoff, EdD, RD<\/p>\n

Swiss chard, one of the many green leafy vegetables we can choose from, is a cousin in the beet family. Depending where you are, Swiss chard can be called silver beet, perpetual spinach, beet spinach, sea kale beet, and leaf beet.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been wondering why it\u2019s called \u201cSwiss\u201d chard, depending on who you listen to, the \u201cSwiss\u201d comes from18th century merchants, wanting to differentiate this plant from French seeds of a similar plant. \u201cChard\u201d comes from an ancient French word, \u201ccarde,\u201d which translates to \u201cthistle.\u201d Or, it could be named after a Swiss scientist known for classifying plants, or for its Sicilian cousin, the cardoon. \u00a0Take your pick!<\/p>\n

While doing this search, I came across a short article entitled \u201cwho should not eat chard?\u201d In a nutshell, many vegetables and beans contain oxalates. If a person is not prone to kidney stones, chronic kidney disease, or gout or is taking blood thinners, then chard, as part of a balanced menu, should be okay. If a person is prone to these conditions, speaking with a dietitian or health care professional would be helpful to plan your intake. Oxalates are water soluble. Some research says that cooking chard in water and draining well helps to remove some of the oxalates; it has also been suggested to pair chard with calcium-rich foods, as calcium binds with oxalates. The downside to this is, for your chard and calcium containing meal, a minimum of calcium would be absorbed.<\/p>\n

Swiss chard and rainbow chard are the exact same vegetable. Traditional Swiss chard features broad, dark green leaves with thick white stalks, while rainbow chard is simply a colorful mix of different colors of chard bundled together, often with red, yellow, pink, orange, and white stalks. Steamed, pink, yellow, or red chard can add a bit of color to light soups and sauces; just make certain that you do want a pink cauliflower soup or a yellow lentil sauce.<\/p>\n

Older or larger chard can be a bit bitter, but there is a way around that. Blanch (not steam or boil) leaves quickly in salted, boiling water or saut\u00e9 them in olive oil or the oil of your choice, and a small amount of garlic and onion. Tossing with balsamic vinegar or lemon or lime juice right before serving can also help to avoid bitter tastes. The key is to cook quickly and then serve and eat.<\/p>\n

In addition to a lovely steamed veggie, chard leaves can be used as wraps rather than tortillas; chopped and used to create \u201cbeans and greens\u201d; mixed with garbanzos or white beans; or for a colorful, chewy tofu scramble. If you have some time, preheat the oven to about 300 degrees, wash and de-stem your chard (the stems are too tough), dry thoroughly (to avoid sogginess), cut or tear into strips or small pieces (a large chard leaf would most probably not crisp), toss with olive oil and salt or nutritional yeast or seasoning of your choice and bake for about 20-30 minutes to create your own chard chips.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chef Nancy Berkoff, EdD, RD Swiss chard, one of the many green leafy vegetables we can choose from, is a cousin in the beet family. Depending where you are, Swiss chard can be called silver beet, perpetual spinach, beet spinach, sea kale beet, and leaf beet. If you\u2019ve been wondering why it\u2019s called \u201cSwiss\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27579,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27577\/revisions\/27579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}