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Swiss Chard: Underappreciated Super Food
Seldom illustrated on the glossy pages of those cooking magazines, Swiss chard is the underappreciated stepchild of Super Foods. Cooking it couldn’t be easier, and it’s often the secret ingredient in some of your favorite foods. Nutritionally, it packs a wallop, with vitamins, mineral, and phytonutrients galore, and eating green leafy veggies regularly will help detoxify your body. Additionally, even if you don’t have a green thumb, you can get years of fresh green goodness from just a few seeds in a patio pot.
Why does Swiss chard qualify as a Super Food giant? Here are three compelling reasons to add it to your Super Food arsenal.
Nutritional Power House
You’ll find super nutrition in just one cup of cooked Swiss chard:
· Vitamins A, C, E, (Alpha Tocopherol), K, and B6, Folate, Thiamin
· Minerals in Swiss chard include phosphorus, zinc, calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, copper, and manganese. Like spinach, Swiss chard also contains oxalates (calcium binders) that can be partially removed by boiling the leaves.
· Phytonutrients
o Betaxanthin. Betaxanthins, natural yellow pigments, are powerful antioxidants. Antioxidants knock out the effects of free radicals that cause damage throughout the body.2
o Flavonoids. Flavonoids in Swiss chard inhibit the replication of breast cancer cells in the laboratory.3
Swiss chard is low in calories (about 35 in a one-cup serving), saturated fats, and cholesterol. However, it is high in sodium.1
A Cooks’ Super Secret Ingredient
To get an idea of the wide variety of dishes you can create with Swiss chard just look at the recipes on Cooks.com. Gnocchi, pizza, soups, omelets, cheese bakes, super chefs prepare all these dishes with Swiss chard. Moreover, chard is a good substitute for cooked spinach when you want a slightly different flavor or in summer when good spinach is difficult to find. However, my favorite cooking technique is to steam the chopped leaves until tender and serve with basalmic vinegar. This dish pairs well with bland starchy vegetables.
Note: Swiss chard has a bitter flavor before cooking. I don’t consider it a good candidate for a fresh, raw salad.
Super Easy to Grow at Home
Here’s the part I most admire about Swiss chard. I can grow it! In the heat of Texas summer or even through the bite of Texas winter, it grows for me. It will grow for you, too, even if the only bit of earth you have is a large ceramic pot on the patio.
You probably won’t find Swiss chard seedlings in your garden center, but you can find the seeds. They’re easy to start in a large (12-16”) pot filled with garden soil. Look for the seeds called “Bright Lights.” They produce plants with different stem colors: red, orange, pink, yellow, and white. You may get a slight boost in nutrients from the colored stems, but mainly I enjoy “Bright Lights” just for the fun of having a colorful display.
Put pots with the seeds planted in a sunny location, full sun if you can manage it. Keep the soil moist until seedlings are well established, and watch them grow. You’ll be able to harvest leaves in two-three months.
When freezing temperatures arrive, it’s time to cover your pot. I use a large, black plastic bag to keep the worst of the cold away. And don’t forget water during the winter. You want to keep the roots alive and healthy even though the leaves will wither from cold.
Feed lightly fall and spring.
Within weeks of spring’s arrival, you’ll be ready to harvest again because these plants recover from the cold quickly.
Take care of them throughout the year, and you’ll have a nutrient-rich harvest of green for years (yes, I mean years) to come.
References
1Chard, swiss, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt. http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2400/2.
2Kugler F, Graneis S, Stintzing FC, Carle R. Studies on betaxanthin profiles of vegetables and fruits from the Chenopodiaceae and Cactaceae. Z Naturforsch [C].2007 May-Jun;62(5-6):311-8
3Ninfali P, Bacchiocca M, Antonelli A, Biagiotti E, Di Gioacchino AM, Piccoli G, oStcchi V, Brandi G. Characterization and biological activity of the main flavonoids from Swiss Chard (Beta vulgaris subspecies cycla).Phytomedicine.2007 Feb;14(2-3):216-21.Epub 2006 May 15.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:01 am
[...] Swiss Chard: Underappreciated Super Food They produce plants with different stem colors: red, orange, pink, yellow, and white. You may get a slight boost in nutrients from the colored stems, but mainly I enjoy “Bright Lights” just for the fun of having a colorful display. … [...]