Sauteed Garlicky Swiss Chard – Simple, Healthy, and Tasty
I consider myself a fairly healthy person, but I would never eat something just because it was healthy. It also has to taste good. Apparently, I’m just too much of a hedonist to sacrifice taste for health. I think there are a lot of people like me but they also hold the notion that healthy cannot taste good. If this were true, I’d be constantly starving or extremely overweight by now.
This garlicky sauteed swiss chard recipe is a simple vegetable dish that helps buck the notion that healthy can’t be tasty. It also shows that less can be more, that just a few simple ingredients is all it takes to create a dish that nourishes you physically while also exciting your taste buds.
Chard, whether red, green, or rainbow and unlike a lot of other greens, lacks bitterness. Instead, you will find a subtle sweetness that welcomes any additional flavor you put on it. Feel free to get creative or use this tried and true combination – garlic, parmesan cheese, plus a squeeze of lemony brightness – and you’ll forget you’re actually eating something healthy.
Ingredients
- Chard – 1 bunch
- Garlic cloves, minced – 4
- Canola / grapeseed oil – 2 tbs.
- Lemons, juice – ½
- Parmesan cheese – 2 oz.
Instructions
Prep
- Chard – Tear leaves off of stems. Wash and dry. Wash stems and chop into ½” segments
- Garlic – Mince
Make
- Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil and then minced garlic and chard stems with a dash of salt to heated oil. Sauté until soft, ~3 min
- Add chard leaves, as much as can fit in the pan at a time, with a pinch of kosher salt. Add more leaves as room is made in the pan. Sauté until all leaves are wilted. Season to taste with salt and pepper, add a squeeze of lemon, and grate cheese over warm chard
- Some recipes recommend that you throw away chard stems or not separate them from the leaves. We think you should keep them because they provide a nice texture (and have a lot of fiber). However, separate them from the leaves because they take a bit longer to cook. To see our guide to prepping greens like chard and kale, check out this video.
