We have massive amounts of swiss chard currently thriving in our garden. It blows my mind how this crop can produce so much! We harvest some of it daily (for juicing), give it away in large clumps to our vegetarian neighbors, and eat bunches like this every week. And still it grows. In 110-degree heat (um… that’s why my hair looks like hell) it shows no signs of giving in- not even a wilted leaf. It’s our champion crop so far this spring and summer.
And so, what to do with all this chard? Andrew’s sister-in-law Annie (who is one of the best cooks I know) made us swiss chard gratin over the winter holidays and I haven’t prepared it any other way since. I’m not sure where she got the recipe, but it is a keeper!
Swiss Chard Gratin
Ingredients:
- 16 large swiss chard leaves (I used 12 gigantic leaves), tough stems removed, leaves coarsely chopped
- 1 1/2 tsp. sea salt
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced (um… I used four)
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 1/4 cup finely shredded Gruyere cheese
- 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (I only used a sprinkling of this because I knew I would be consuming the majority of the dish and well… 1/2 cup of cheese is a little much for one person… maybe)
In large pan, warm olive oil. Add garlic, then chard, salt, & pepper, and stir to coat chard.
Transfer to dish and sprinkle cheese on top. Broil until cheeses form a golden brown crust, about 5 minutes (watch it- mine looked like this after 4 minutes flat):
Serves 4-6. Or one.
I polished off the entire dish with a little help from Emil.
Holy ginormous Swiss chard! Mine is about 6 inches still so looking at your’s I just have to laugh. That is impressive.
This recipe looks delicious- I will try it. We love chard too and put it on everything. The most recent success was sauté-ing it in garlic and using it as a pizza topping along with cheese and roasted potatoes. It was better than I expected 🙂
I love Swiss Chard! Isn’t it so absolutely beautiful too? This dish looks slightly naughty and really good. Must make it. Also, I’ve used swiss chard in a home made mac-n-cheese dish and it’s amazing!
xo
cortnie
This dish looks deelish, and I just love that pic of you! Such a beauty!
Good heavens! That looks absolutely perfect. I will be copying this as soon as I can get my hands on some chard. Which might just be this weekend at our awesome farmers market.
You should know that I often say chard as “shart” because I’m a 12 year old boy and am unable to not make poop jokes throughout the day. Heh.
And lady, PLEASE. I looked at your picture first and thought how super pretty you are, and then saw that bit about your hair. Your hair looks cute even in eleventeen thousand degree heat.
You’re slowly winning me over with the Swiss Chard. I might just have to make a spot for it in next year’s garden…
Look at the size of that chard!!! Amazing! Such a cute pic of you! And this recipe.. YUMMMMM. Definitely going to try it out!