One Pan sauteed swiss chard with bacon is a delightful low carb dinner meal idea.
Watch how I prepare this easy recipe from scratch with garden-fresh swiss chard in my video further below.
The complete recipe with tips and more is waiting for you further below in the post.
Do you enjoy low carb one pan skillet dinner meals just like this sauteed swiss chard with bacon?
If yes, then I think you will appreciate my quick chicken cabbage stir fry and my cabbage and sausage skillet.
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What is swiss chard?
Swiss Chard is a leafy green vegetable with an elongated stalk.
The vegetable is also simply known as chard, however other names exist as well.
Chards with colorful stalks, such as the red or yellow chard, are also known as rainbow chard.
Rainbow chard is the same species as swiss chard, so both names can be used for the vibrant chard varieties.
Swiss Chard resembles rhubarb by the looks and taste like earthy beets and spinach.
Growing chard
We like to grow our own swiss chard in the northern hemisphere.
The vegetable doesn't grow in a tropical climate, I tried it.
Swiss Chard seeds are sown out in March and April after the last frost and by June you may already harvest your first leaves with stalks.
In fact, you can harvest your first leaves 30 days after sowing.
I found this swiss chard growing guide useful.
You can continue to harvest until the first frost in fall.
Young smaller leaves are more tender and tend to be better suited for salads because they are not that strong in flavor.
We have a habit of allowing the plant to grow oversized, which is ok too.
Swiss Chard is harvested by cutting it at the lowest point of the stem close to the floor and bulb.
Storing fresh chard
Swiss chard is a leafy green vegetable. That means that fresh leaves are fragile and wilt quickly right after harvesting.
Chard is best enjoyed directly harvested from your garden and used within the hour in your food.
Chard from your grocery store is fine too but always buy the freshest one because the longer they lie around the more the leaves lose on quality.
Store fresh swiss chard in your fridge:
- Pick out the bad leaves
- Rinse your fresh swiss chard leaves and stalks
- Pat dry your chard. There shouldn't be any water left or else your greens won't keep that well.
- Cut large leaves and stalks apart. If you have young small leaves, keep them as they are.
- Place chard into closed perforated bags
- Store in the fridge in your fresh vegetable section for up to 10 days or until you see the first leaves turning bad.
To freeze your swiss chard:
- Pick out the bad leaves.
- Rinse
- Cut leaves and stalks into smaller pieces
- Heat up a pot with water and allow to boil
- Place your cut chard leaves and stalks into the cooking water and blanche for 2-3 minutes.
- Take out your swiss chard and halt the cooking process by placing the chard into a bowl with ice water. This will help retain the shape and color of your chard.
- Once cooled, dry your swiss chard in a clean towel.
- Prepare small batches and place them into freezer bags.
- Freeze completely
- To use in this recipe, thaw completely and discard excess liquids from the chard. Use as per recipe instructions.
How to prepare chard?
I use large garden-fresh swiss chard leaves (as seen in the pictures) because they are more suitable than small tender leaves in this sauteed swiss chard recipe.
Colorful large rainbow chard stalks are your best choice for this one-pot skillet dinner meal because of the color contrast and deep earthy flavors.
Step 1
Start by breaking apart your swiss chard leaves from the stalks.
That way your large leaves and stalks can be easily rinsed.
Pat dry your swiss chard.
Step 2
Cut your stalks to your preferred size. I like them to be bite-sized.
Cut your leaves small.
Keep chard leaves and stalk pieces separate.
How to cook this dish?
To cook and sautee swiss chard is actually super easy!
Just make sure that you followed my how to prepare and cut fresh swiss chard instructions further on top and you are good to go.
The complete sauteed swiss chard Recipe to print with all the ingredients and instruction details is located at the bottom of this post with the how-to video.
Step 1
Heat up a pan with olive oil and butter and cook your onion slices soft.
Add your bacon pieces to your pan and cook on high heat until crispy.
Step 2
Place cut chard stalks into your pan and stir cook on high heat for a minute.
Reduce heat and sautee your stalks. We cook the stalks first because they take longer to cook through.
Season with salt, black pepper and thyme, and mix.
Step 3
Once the stalks are somewhat cooked through, add in half of your cut chard leaves into the pan and sautee.
The leaves will reduce in size and then you can add the remaining chard leaves to sautee and mix in those too.
Pour your cream over your cooked chard, mix and stir cook for another minute or two.
Serve hot.
More chard recipes
- Rainbow Chard Tuna Salad by fearlessdining.com
- Black Eyed Pea Swiss Chard Soup by azgrabaplate.com
- Swiss Chard Pasta by littleferrarokitchen.com
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Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas with us in the comment section further below!
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📖 Recipe
Sauteed Swiss Chard Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 medium Swiss Chard Stalks with Leaves
- 5.3 ounces Bacon Slices about 7 slices
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1 Tablespoon Butter
- 1 Onion sliced
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- ¼ Teaspoon Black Pepper
- 1 Tablespoon Thyme dried, *see Notes
- ⅔ cup Cream liquid or half and half
Instructions
- Take your chard stems with leaves in the hand and break them apart where the leave and the stem meet. That way its easier to rinse off impurities. Pat dry after rinsing.
- Cut your stems into smaller pieces and keep in a bowl aside.
- Cut your leaves small as well and keep separate from the cut stalks. The leaves need short cooking then the stems.
- Cut your bacon into small pieces.
- Heat up a pan with the olive oil and butter and add in your onion slices. Cook your onion soft.
- Add the bacon pieces and fry your bacon until crisp over medium to high heat.
- Throw in your swiss chard stem pieces and stir cook for a minute on high heat. Then sautee your swiss chard stalk pieces over medium heat.
- Season with salt, black pepper and thyme, and mix.
- Sautee your chard stems until they look almost cooked through.
- Now add half of the swiss chard leaves to your pan and over high heat mix and cook so that the leaves reduce in size. Then add the remaining rainbow chard leaves and cook further over high heat until the leaves have considerably reduced in size.
- Reduce heat to medium and pour cream over the chard in the pan. Cook and mix for another 1-2 minutes.
- Serve your sauteed swiss chard with bacon hot.
Notes
- You can use dried thyme or rosemary or savory or a mix of all these spices. Sometimes I like to use a Italian seasoning blend too.
Nutrition
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So freaking delicious! I wording change a thing
Glad you loved it 🙂
It was delicious!!
lovely 🙂
I added some shredded, cooked chicken I needed to use
Great idea to use leftovers! Love this. Thanks for sharing
I did not have bacon. Ahhh. But I did have bacon fat! (My mom would be proud.) I also added fresh garlic. Tasty. I topped some doctored grits with the Swiss chard and added shrimp Yum-o!! Husband approved.
Nice! Thanks for sharing your version Jennie 🙂
This was delicious. To cut down on the fat, I cooked the bacon first and then drained off most of the bacon fat. Continued with the oils to cook onion, etc. A little bit of vinegar will bring out the flavors as well if you want to substitute for the cream if you want even fewer fat calories. I’m going to try that next time. Thanks for this recipe.
Thanks for sharing your adaptation Mary.
Were vegan, so I altered this recipe a bit. We used bacon bits (very little) and tvp for our meatiness. I also added a bit of fresh tomato sauce to the dish, plus a zucchini. It was utterly amazing. We love it so much it will be a regular for our table. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Hi Donna! Thanks so much for sharing your vegan version. That's very helpful. We like to eat vegan sometimes, for a change. I bet others will appreciate your feedback too. 🙂
Really good...I forgot the cream and it was still tasty.
Amazing! thanks for sharing 🙂
My new favorite dish.
oh lovely that's great! 🙂
Is the nutrition info correct? 48 grams of fat in one serving? Times three servings that’s 144 grams of fat in the whole dish? That does not seem correct.
Hi Kelly, the calculation is correct. This is a low carb, high fat dish.
This was delicious!
thank you for sharing! 🙂
Didn’t have cream so left that out. Also didn’t have bacon so we used pancetta - served over brown rice - pretty tasty! Great way to use swisschard
Pancetta makes a great substitute for bacon. Thanks for the idea! 🙂
**Delicious! I was kind of thrown off by the cream, but added it anyway, and it made a wonderful addition. I thought I would use the leftovers for quiche....but there was nothing left!**
The cream has the ability to uplift the flavors in this dish. 🙂
Used way less Italian seasoning. Maybe 1/2 Tbsp. Only 4 pieces of bacon. The leftovers were tossed in a quiche the next day.
Thanks for sharing Heather. Great idea to use up leftovers in a quiche.
Made it with zucchini fritters and pulled pork! SO YUMMY!
Oh, and I didn’t have cream so I just left it out. Still yummy! Though I’ll try it with cream next time!
Thank you Emily for your feedback 🙏
Really delicious! Added shallots to the onions. I also used thick cut bacon that was leftover from this morning.
Thank you for your feedback 🙏