Sauteed Swiss Chard and Summer Squash is a quick and easy healthy side dish with lots of feta cheese and a little bit of spice!
Gardening is in my blood. I cannot remember a time when my family didn’t grow something. Whether it was the large vegetable garden of my youth or the 10 acre vineyard of today’s family winery, I have been surrounded by fresh grown fruits and vegetables my entire life. So it’s only natural that, as a woman with her own family, we would have a garden as well.
Fresh greens and summer squash (and zucchini) are the flag drop of the gardening season. Once those veggies start coming in, the gardening season is in full swing.
The arrival of summer squash is a reason for celebration in our family. Everyone with the exception of my brother ( who has a limited palette anyway) loves fresh squash any way they can get it, and it’s a good thing too. In an attempt to beat the squash bugs to the punch I always plant quite a few squash and zucchini plants along with the rest of my garden veggies.
I often plant as many as 12 squash and zucchini plants that pump out 1 or 2 squashes every day! Pair that with the Swiss Chard that is just as prolific and what you end up with is a woman trying her best to figure out what to do with all of that produce.
How to Cook Swiss Chard
Swiss chard was a relatively new vegetable to me when I first grew it in our garden. First, it’s really big and leafy with a thick, often brightly colored stem. How does Swiss chard taste? I’d say it’s similar to spinach, but hardier like kale or collard greens. It has a mild flavor which I can appreciate because I’m not a big fan of strongly flavored greens.
When you cook Swiss Chard you want to remove the stems from the leaves and cook them separately. The stems are delicious (and pretty!) but they take a couple minutes longer to cook than the rest of the leaf, so giving them a head start is ideal. I always saute my chard before I eat it or even add it to other recipes. It doesn’t wilt as fast as spinach, so a few minutes on its own in a skillet will do it some good.
This is a really easy quick Swiss chard and squash recipe. Load this side dish down with as much feta cheese and red pepper as you like. It’ll only make it better. Whip up a double batch and use the leftovers in a quiche if you’ve got a lot of fresh produce lying around.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Roughly chop Swiss chard leaves and stems, keeping them separate. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat and add onion, chard stems and garlic to the pan. Cook for 3 minutes or until slightly softened. Add squash, chard leaves, oregano , red pepper flakes and salt and pepper to the pan. Toss the mixture until all of the veggies are coated with the oil. Continue to cook until the Swiss chard has wilted and the squash are cooked through, stirring occasionally. About 10 minutes. Remove the veggies from the pan and toss with crumbled feta cheese. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
I’ll gladly pull some of your weeds in exchange for this delicious looking dish! Send some my way!
wow this was delicious…I made this for lunch for my family and my 6 and 5 year old both ate their portion and said it was “soooo good Mama”. The only thing extra I added was mushrooms, and some cherry tomatoes from our garden. Also, instead of swiss chard I used kale from our yard. And also i added this recipe on top of some pasta, (this was probably all TMI) Thank you for the recipe.
So dang delicious
We have chard and zucchini in spades from our garden so I was delighted to see this recipe. The flavor is good. We aren’t heat lovers so I cut the red pepper flakes back to 1/2 tsp. and it was still very hot. Think carefully about how much heat you want to add.
I used yellow squash and left out the feta cheese (wouldn’t go with my entree). Delicious and easy. A different way to use up a small amount of Swiss Chard.
2-11-21 I used yellow squash and left out the feta cheese (wouldn’t go with my entree). Delicious and easy. A different way to use up a small amount of Swiss Chard.