Baby chard / Spinach greens

A quick introduction

Sometimes we label bags of baby chard as 'spinach greens', meaning that they taste like spinach and can be cooked in much the same way as spinach. We grow red and green chard and you will often find a mix of both colours in the bag. These greens are best cooked as they can be a little tough when eaten raw, although we have noticed that people have different opinions about this.

Storage

As with all leafy greens we recommend washing chard in cold water (we do pre-wash it at the farm), then dry it and store in a closed container in the fridge. This way it will keep for almost a week.

Season

Spring to fall (we mostly grow it in spring)

Suggestions for preparation

Unlike young spinach, baby chard tastes best when cooked. We like to make a quiche with spinach greens, goats cheese, nutmeg and Parmesan or use them to make Italian malfatti with sage butter (Stadsgroenteboer Julia's addiction). As the leaves have a little more 'body' compared to normal spinach they can be cooked for longer and are even great in soups (see our lentils and chard soup recipe).