Swiss Chard Salad
Some of you “old timers” may remember this salad from a newsletter sent out a couple of years back, when I was going through a divorce and living with my wonderful mom temporarily. Since my mom goes out a lot more than I do, I got pretty skilled at cooking dinner for myself (granted, that “dinner” was often crackers or Hot Dog Stirfry, but still, it’s food, right?!). This Swiss chard salad was a healthy exception to the rule.
Fastest salad in the West, or nearly
I’ve gone ahead and scaled it up for two or more people, since maybe you have more to feed than yourself, but even if you don’t this salad stays well in the fridge for a day. As an addition to a full meal, you can get 4 servings from this, but if you’re serving it as a main-dish salad, it will feed two people (assuming you have some crackers and box wine to go with it). I also added some more vegetables, since I’m trying to eat more vegetables. Blerg.
Wash it, stem it, slice it, realize you missed a bunch of dirt, wash it again, dry it off on a semi-clean tea towel. Voila!
Side note: When I was growing up, chard only came in one color, which was white. (White stems, I mean, and green leaves.) Then all this rainbow chard started popping up everywhere and I do admit it’s gorgeous. I imagine it has more antioxidants and stuff than the boring old white kind, too.
Further side note: in New Zealand, everyone calls Swiss chard “Silver beet” which baffled me to no end, since chard doesn’t make beetroots of any kind.
But. Dudes. Derp … Swiss chard is related to beets … Which explains why beet greens look so similar to red chard … and also explains the name “Silver beet”, since all chard stems used to be white (or silver, it sounds fancier). I had no idea.
IT’S SO PRETTY! LOOKIT THOSE COLORS! IT’S LIKE A RAINBOW.
ANYWAY. My point is, that this salad would probably work just as well with beet greens.
The end. Jeez.
Sorry.
PrintSwiss Chard Salad
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 2-4 1x
Ingredients
- 1 bunch of chard (you want about 5 cups once it’s all chopped up)
- 4 teaspoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar or cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup
- Salt and pepper, a couple shakes of each
- 1 cup diced cucumber
- 1 small beet, sliced thinly and slices cut into quarters (raw)
- 1/4 cup golden raisins or dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup toasted sunflower seeds
Instructions
- Cut the stems out of the chard and put them back in the fridgerator for making hot dog stir-fry later. Stack the chard leaves and roll them into a tight cylinder. Cut the cylinder into ¼” slices, giving you long chard ribbons. That’s called a chiffonade!
- Put chard int oa large bowl and add oil, vinegar, lemon juice, maple syrup, salt and pepper, and toss to coat the chard.
- Add everything else and toss.
- Let it sit 15-30 minutes, or as long as it takes you to take a damn shower, to get the chard leaves softened. Eat it and be the healthiest person you know.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 3 cups
- Calories: 254
- Fat: 13
- Carbohydrates: 34
- Fiber: 5
- Protein: 6
14 Comments
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I’ve been eating a lot of home grown old-fashioned white Swiss chard raw in salads this summer. Usually I add it (including the stems) to Romaine or other lettuce leaves along with flat leaf parsley, chives, and something else–tomato, cucumber, celery, nasturtium leaves, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, tuna, whatever. I’ve even included some beet greens as well from time to time. I love the red color in the salad! Thanks for giving Swiss chard a plug!
Thanks, Tim! I think people don’t often consider eating Swiss chard raw — not me either, until a couple years ago — but it’s great! Your salad combo suggestions sound good and beautiful. Nasturtium leaves and flowers are SO crazy cute in a salad. Mine didn’t do too well this year, but maybe next year I will remember to plant them before it’s already 90 degrees outside and they will do better. 🙂
Just Discovered you! Thank you for great chard salad. Dressing is perfect
★★★★★
Glad to hear!
Hi Hilah! Sounds like a great recipe. Are you able to put PINTEREST button on individual recipes so I don’t have to print them out? Thank you
Yes, I will add the button back on. It makes the website run slower, so we took them off.
Well I wish I had seen this recipe before dinner. I really like Swiss Chard but was looking for some new ways to serve it. Farm fresh, local chard is just available and I will be enjoying it frequently over the next little while. The next bunch will be going into one of these salads.
★★★★
We don’t really get swiss chard in india. Found some today. Your recipe looks interesting so leek and pumpkin soup and swiss chard salad for dinner tonight.
Oh interesting, Daulat! I feel honored that you’re choosing my recipe for your rare Swiss chard find 🙂
This is a delicious salad, my first chard salad. The dressing is really good and simple, and I love the raisins in there. Didn’t have cucumber and beet, but added carrots. Will do again for sure!
★★★★★
Smbch gonna chK this out.
First time making swiss chard salad. Love this recipe!
Is the beet cooked or roasted or canned?
I used peeled raw beets. If you peel them, it removes most of the “earthy” taste but keeps the crunch