French chard

The other greens we have growing in the autumn garden are Swiss chard, called blettes, bettes, bettes à cardes, or poirée. The plant called bette is closely related to the betterave — which means beet root — plant. Chard seems to be a specialty of the Lyon area and the Rhône Valley in France. The plants in our garden are fairly small still. I expect them to grow a lot more once it starts raining here again. Look at these chard plants that spent the whole winter of 2017 out in the garden.

In France, the wide, white ribs of the chard leaves are often cooked separately from the green parts. The ribs are cooked in gratins, for example, with melted cheese. They're good diced up and cooked in a vegetable soup.

The white ribs of chard leaves, blanched in boiling water first, are good as a layer in a pan of lasagne (photo above). The green parts of the chard leaves are cooked like spinach, but have a milder flavor. The whole leaves can also be cooked together in the same pot.

The electronic Larousse Gastronomique (2007) calls the chard rib (the côte or carde) un légume délicat that can be cooked in a white sauce or a tomato sauce, or au jus. Chard is good cooked in butter or cream. Adding some Dijon mustard to a cream sauce is how one local woman told me she likes them cooked. The older hard-bound Larousse Gastronomique (1967) gives more than a dozen recipes for bettes. Chard is a really good filling for an omelet.