What a beautiful looking plant ‘Rhubarb’ chard is. It always catches my eye as I walk past it in the field. Its bright red stems contrasting with the deep dark green glossy foliage, it just says ‘healthy’ to me.
It has nothing to do with Rhubarb apart from its appearance but a few customers have asked me if it is Rhubarb when they have spotted it.
Rhubarb Chard is a variation on Swiss Chard (Beta Vulgaris), a member of the beet family related to beetroot and sugar beet. There are also yellow and pink variations. It cooks and tastes similar to spinach but I personally think that it has more flavour.
Nutrition wise, it is up there with some of the healthiest foods being one of the most nutritious vegetables around weight for weight. It contains loads of good stuff such as vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, magnesium, manganese, copper, potassium, iron, choline, vitamin E, vitamin B2, calcium, vitamin B6, phosphorus and protein.
Why are we not eating more of it then? We once had some Mediterranean visitors to the farm who got quite animated and excited when seeing it growing and demanded we sell them a huge bunch of it. It seems that they knew its value.
As the recipe says, this is an easy one to cook and a great side dish.
Easy Rhubarb Chard
1 x 400g bunch of Swiss Chard
1 dessertspoon coconut oil
1 large clove garlic
1 red chilli, sliced
1/4 tsp coriander seeds
Rinse the rainbow chard and separate the stalks from the leaves.
Cut the stalks into 2 1/2 cm pieces, roll the leaves and cut them into 2 1/2cm slices (keep the stalks and leaves separate).
Heat the coconut oil in a large frying pan or wok and saute the garlic, chilli and coriander seeds over a medium heat for about 30 seconds.
Add the rainbow chard stalks, lower the heat, cover the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes.
Add the chopped leaves and toss with the garlic, chilli and stalks mixture.
Cover the pan and cook for a further 3-4 minutes until tender.
Stir and serve.
(Recipe adapted from Easy Swiss Chard on Simple Recipes).