Recipes with chard
Chards are vegetables that should be part of everyone’s diet, as they are foods that offer a large amount of nutrients even in the smallest portions. Therefore, it is always good to have a couple of recipes up your sleeve, to help you eat deliciously without neglecting your health.
When it comes to achieving a healthy diet, one of the fundamental pillars to achieve this is to consume a large amount of vegetables, since these are natural foods that are quite nutritionally complete, which manage to provide different vitamins, minerals and other important elements that will help you maintain always healthy.
Among all the vegetables that exist, red and green chard are often left out. This may be because of their strong flavor or because people are simply hesitant to try them because of their appearance. However, eating asparagus chard or chard puree could really affect your body in a positive way, due to the nutritional properties of this vegetable.
What benefits does the consumption of chard offer?
Cooking chard from time to time can be a good way to stay healthy while eating delicious dishes.
A serving of cooked chard will provide you with a significant percentage of vitamins A, B, C, E, and K. In addition, it will also provide you with Omega-3 fatty acids, lutein, flavonoids, zeaxanthin, and the famous ingredient in carrots: beta-carotene. In turn, it is also a nutritional source of minerals such as sodium, potassium, phosphorus, iron, copper and calcium.
And while it does provide all of this, each 100 gram serving only has 19 kcl, so it will give you all those vitamins without affecting your ideal weight.
How to prepare Swiss chard?
If you do not know how to cook Swiss chard, you should not worry, because there are really easy recipes to prepare. That way, you won’t have to make an effort to eat this delicious vegetable and enjoy its benefits. In fact, everything is so simple that a hunting knife when camping will be all you need to cut a chard and make a recipe with it.
1. Chard sautéed with paprika and potatoes
To enhance the nutritional value of chard, you have this brilliant recipe that complements the vegetable so that you can eat chard with potatoes and paprika.
Ingredients:
– 1 kg of Swiss chard
– 1 large onion
– 1 tsp sweet paprika
– 2 cloves of garlic
– 3 large potatoes
– Extra virgin olive oil
– Salt
1. Before cooking the chard you must first cook the potatoes and, for this, you have two ways. We recommend steaming them, however, if you prefer to use boiling water, you can do that too.
Wash the potatoes very well to remove the dirt and any other type of dirt and place them in the microwave for about 8 minutes at maximum power. Remember to always use a case suitable for steam cooking.
2. While you wait for the potatoes, fill a pot with water and turn to high heat, adding a teaspoon of salt.
2. When the microwave time is up, take out the potatoes and prick them with a fork to make sure they are cooked. If they are not, then cook them for a few more minutes. The microwave is optional, because this step can be done on an induction hob or gas stove alike.
4. Cut the stems of the chard and divide them into two parts: leaves and stems. Wash everything very well and leave them in a container with cold water to clean. After that, cut everything into pieces.
5. Once the water is boiling, add the leaves, wait for it to boil again and, after five minutes, add the leaves. After another five minutes, pour the contents into a colander so that the chard throws away the excess water.
6. Peel the garlic cloves and cut them into slices, then peel the potatoes and cut them in half. Also peel the onion and chop it julienne.
7. Take a frying pan, add oil and add the garlic, onion and a pinch of salt. Cook this until the vegetables are browned.
8. Add the potatoes and paprika, and cook for two minutes over low heat.
9. Finally, add the chard, add a little salt and check that the cooking time of the chard is not more than five minutes. When finished, serve.
2. Chard sauteed with garlic
If you are on a diet and want to eat something quick and nutritious, then this recipe is right for you.
Ingredients:
– Oil
– 2 cloves of garlic
– 2 medium potatoes
– 400 grams of Swiss chard
To cook chard:
1. Wash the chard, remove the leaves and store them.
2. Cut the leaves into pieces of approximately 2 cm.
3. Sauté the chard for three minutes, filling the pot with water until the vegetables are covered.
4. Cook over high heat for approximately 10 minutes, draining the chard when finished.
Sauté chard with garlic:
1. Peel the garlic and proceed to cut them into slices and then set aside.
2. Take a frying pan, add a tablespoon of oil and when the heat is at its maximum, add the garlic to the oil and then, if they are well drained, add the chard.
3. Don’t stop moving the food so it doesn’t burn and that’s it.
This recipe can be complemented with mushrooms, ham and other vegetables that could make the dish even richer.
3. Swiss chard omelette
Nothing is easier than an omelette and, just by adding a little chard, you can increase its nutritional value exponentially.
Ingredients
– ½ onion
– 1 clove garlic
– 4 eggs
– 500 grams of Swiss chard
– Salt
– Pepper
– Extra virgin olive oil
1. To start, wash the Swiss chard, drain and cut into small pieces. It is recommended to cook them in the microwave to try to preserve the greatest amount of nutrients. The cooking time for Swiss chard should be about 4 minutes .
2. Chop the onions and garlic, while adding oil to a pan. First poach the onions for two minutes and, when adding the garlic clove, cook for another minute and a half.
3. Add the chard to the pan and sauté for about 4 minutes, always over low heat.
4. In a bowl, beat the eggs, seasoning with salt and pepper. Then slowly pour the mixture into the pan.
5. Allow the tortilla to set and, when it is done, tilt the pan gently to pour the oil into a glass. By doing this, you already turn the tortilla helping you with a lid or a plate.
6. Add the oil to continue cooking on the other side and wait for it to brown. When it’s ready, just serve.
