- 2
- 5 mins
- 15 mins
Ingredients
- 1 ounce green pitted green olives (about 10 medium sized), roughly chopped or sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
- 1 green onion or shallot, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon capers
- Olive oil
- 1 large bunch of Swiss chard, rinsed and patted dry
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Preparation
Step 1
I've been on a chard kick this season, getting one or two bunches a week for the last several months. It cooks down to something more substantial than spinach, and is more tender and therefore cooks faster than kale or collard greens. A few weeks ago I had some leftover olive tapenade from another cooking experiment and decided to toss it in with the sautéing chard. Wow! What a combo. We're used to cooking up our greens with bacon, the bacon countering the bitterness of the greens. Well, oddly the olives and capers seem to do the same thing here, providing an earthy richness and a perky saltiness to balance the bitter of the green. The olive mixture would work well with other greens as well, such as rabe or dandelion greens.
Make extra of the tapenade mixture (the olives, rosemary, capers, onion) and cover it with olive oil, store for several weeks in the refrigerator and then just take a scoop to add to whatever greens you are cooking.
Mix together the olives, rosemary, green onion, and capers with a tablespoon of olive oil and let sit while you prep the chard.
Heat a large, stick-free sauté pan on medium high heat. Coat the bottom of the pan with about a tablespoon of olive oil, just enough to coat. When the oil is hot, add the chard stems. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring often, until they begin to soften. Then stir in the olive mixture. Cook for a minute more, then add the chopped chard leaves to the pan. Use tongs or two large spoons to toss the chard leaves in with the rest of the mixture, so that the chard gets coated with olive oil.
Cover the pan and reduce the heat to low. Let cook a few minutes, lift the cover every once in a while to turn the leaves over in the pan. Once the chard has all wilted, remove from heat. Sprinkle with black pepper to taste.
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The tapenade is the olive and caper mixture in this recipe. You can make it more traditional by adding anchovies if you want, or dress it up with other herbs or lemon zest. ~Elise
Growing up, we had a lot of swiss chard, escarole, broccoli-rabe, and the like - a la Italian style. This recipe brings it all back! I wish I could get my family to eat the bitter greens; I adore them! Maybe I should make this just for me and my mom.
This looks phenomenal - and healthy to boot!!! Olives are actually a lot like bacon to me - they make everything taste even better! And the rosemary in the tapenade is a really interesting addition... Thanks for sharing!
This looks delicious! Thanks for sharing it. I must try it - the addition of rosemary sounds interesting.
This chard makes a supper veggie meal. I am of a Mediterranean bias so the presence of shallots, Rosemary and black pepper falls into a native gourmet. There is an Italian adaptation of this chard in which your shallot is replaced with garlic and the black pepper with red ones. I think basically you get the same taste except that one is more veggie than the other.
Made this using classic New Orleans olive salad mix and it's yummy.
Here are two variations that my (Sicilian) family used to use:
Omit the rosemary and add anchovy paste to taste to the tapenade mixture; sprinkle with peccorino or other good italian cheese to taste just before serving.
Way #2: add white raisins instead of olives.
I would just say try it and see. Sounds like it could be good. It would be easy enough to add a sweet note to the dish. ~Elise
Yum, yum. Steam-sauteed chard (with a little garlic) and olives or tapenade make one of my favorite sandwiches - toast sourdough with goat cheese on top and then add.
Not sure why I didn't think to add capers to the olives (they're in tapenade, after all) but I sure will after this. I'll also try them with broccoli (broc-and-olive pasta is another thing I like).
I'm so glad to see you use the stems. I hate when I see people throw them away -- what a waste! I am growing Bright Lights Swiss chard in my garden and the colors are unreal. I've got to hand it to you, I've made Swiss chard so many ways - with dried apricots and pine nuts, stirred into vegetable chili, in a frittata - but never thought to use rosemary and olives. Will try!
I love swiss chard and have been addicted to it lately. Love the addition of the olives in this recipe!
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