Garden gluts: Silverbeet aka Swiss Chard

Caroline

Food writer, broadcaster and author Caroline Hennessy has been focused on food and writing since editing Ireland’s first food website for RTÉ in 2000. Chair of the Irish Food Writers’ Guild, she established the award-winning Bibliocook: All About Food in 2005, is the author of two books about beer and food and has a column in the Irish Examiner in which she writes about small food producers and the ways in which they develop and maintain a sustainable local food system.

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5 Responses

  1. Laura says:

    I only came around to swiss chard this summer and have become an enthusiastic convert. I have the Sarah Raven book which is fantastic but my favourite recipe for it so far is a really simple frittata recipe that I posted from from Gregg Wallace’s Veg Book. Yum.

  2. Caroline says:

    Just discovered that recipe over on your blog, Laura! Great to find more Swiss chard/silverbeet fans in Ireland. After reading this entry, my sister sent me a text saying “sliverbeet? never heard of it!” Will have to entice her down for dinner, methinks, to look into her spelling as much as introduce her to new food!

  3. Julian says:

    One of these days I’m going to get around to doing a bit of research into what exactly American collard greens are, and grow some, but in the meantime I wouldn’t hesitate to introduce a pot of chard to a meaningful quantity of bacon bits and as much of their fat as possible and some hot sauce, to accompany a dinner of Hoppin’ John perhaps. With some beer. And some cornbread.

  4. Caroline says:

    Oooh! That sounds really good! I love dishes that involve beans and ham – Hoppin’ John sounds like something that would sit and cook happily on top of our stove on a wet Saturday. Will have to stock up on Black Eyed Peas…

  5. This is one of my favourite things to grow. Even the children LOVE it. I cook it like spinach, giving it 4 minutes to wilt in a hot pan on its own. I add one of various things once cooked ; a knob of butter, a shake of nutmeg, a drizzle of honey, or a dash of salad dressing. I also throw it into any stew or casserole I make. Once dinner is removed from the oven I stir in the chopped swiss chard, thats all it needs to wilt the leaves.The youngest leaves can be put into a fresh salad, the rainbow of colours are beautiful, especially with some pot marigold petals.The best thing about chard is that it is one of the few things that can be grown in Ireland without being decimated by slugs!

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