Melissa d’Arabian shows a delicious alternative to spinach if you want to sauté a leafy green for your side dish.
While she champions Swiss Chard as the inexpensive alternative to spinach, we are a fan of chard for its rich, peppery flavor. So it’s tasty, easy to prepare, and inexpensive!
We are big fans of sautéed greens as a side: their flavor can be tweaked ever so slightly to match whatever entree you are preparing. In this video, Melissa doesn’t specify her main dish, but prepares the chard with a little garlic, some red pepper flakes, and a dash of vinegar. If you are cooking beef in particular, we recommend subbing out the vinegar in favor of Worcestershire sauce. There’s something about the peppery sweet taste of the chard that is perfectly accented by the smoky tang of Worcestershire.
The one point that Melissa just kind of glosses over in her preparation is the importance of cooking the stalks first before you add the leaves. There are some swiss chard heretics out there who discard the stalks, but that is an absolute waste. You can start the stalks cooking (cut them into small pieces first) and they should cook about four minutes, or until soft, during which time you can cut the leaves into a rough chop.
The other beauty of swiss chard and its low price point is that you can test and experiment with your recipes without breaking the bank. When compared with kale, which is currently about three times the cost per bundle, Swiss chard is a delicious and nutritious side that is easy to make.
