A delicious side dish that needs three ingredients and five minutes to cook. A great way to add vegetables to a weeknight’s dinner.
Living in the US, I cannot usually find the same produce I used to eat daily in China. Vegetables like baby bok choy and Chinese broccoli have become a luxury. Not only are they much more expensive, it’s very difficult to get good fresh ones, even at the Asian market. It’s my second summer in my new home, and I’ve started to apply Chinese flavors to local produce.
I’ve been trying to use authentic Chinese seasonings with vegetables I can find in Austin. The texture of the dish might be a bit different, but the flavor stays great.
Today I want to introduce an easy swiss chard recipe that uses just three ingredients and takes five minutes to cook. It is a family recipe that my mom usually uses with baby bok choy and fried tofu.
The highlight of this recipe is the combination of garlic, sugar, and soy sauce. The garlic will infuse the cooking oil and make the whole dish very fragrant. The soy sauce adds saltiness and umami. The sugar is the most important part. It won’t turn the dish sweet, but will enhance the depth of the umami and make it extra delicious.
The seasoning makes the swiss chard so flavorful that you can eat a huge amount of vegetables effortlessly. It is one of our favorite ways to add a side to dinner, no matter whether you’re serving roast salmon or baked chicken. It goes well both with Asian and Western style main dishes.
To prep swiss chard, you simply need to rinse the leaves, shake off the extra water, and chop them. You don’t need to dry them thoroughly before cooking. A hot cast iron pan earns extra points but is not necessary. I’ve tried both a cast iron pan and a nonstick skillet, and both work. The prep and cooking will be done in under 10 minutes.
Looking for more simple side dishes like this? Check out my broccoli with oyster sauce, baby bok choy with garlic dressing, four-ingredient okra stir fry, and vinaigrette cabbage.
If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it #omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with. Cheers, friends!
Easy Swiss Chard Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 1 bunch swiss chard 8 to 10 leaves
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
- 3 cloves garlic , coarsely chopped
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce (or tamari for gluten-free)
Instructions
- To prep the swiss chard, cut off the stems and chop the leaves into 1-cm (1/2-inch) pieces. Chop the leaves into 4-cm (1.5-inch) pieces. Separate the stems and leaves.
- Heat oil in a cast iron pan (or wok, or a heavy skillet) until hot. Add garlic. Stir a few times until fragrant.
- Add the chard stems. Cook and stir a few times until they start to soften.
- Add the leaves. Quickly stir a few times. Add sugar and swirl in soy sauce. Immediately stir to mix well. Cook and stir until the chard turns tender. Transfer to a serving plate immediately to stop cooking.
- Serve warm or at room temperature as a side dish.
Swiss chard is so beautiful, as well as healthy. Wonderful idea to stir fry it!
Maggie this looks amazing! I can’t wait to do this. When I saw the photo I thought no way it’s three ingredients – it looks so colorful and full of good stuff I had to come and verify you didn’t sneak more ingredients! Hah! Will you believe it that I always spend easily 20 min separating the leaves from the stem of kale and chard by hand? I never thought to just chop up the stems and use them. Duh! Goodness!
We love Swiss Chard and Baby Bok Choy – our local grocery store carries it regularly so I hope you can get it someday too. This recipe is lovely and the flavors sound great!
I can’t stop staring at this, I can’t wait to try it, I’ve been bypassing rainbow chard for ages!
I can see how this beautiful dish would go well with so many entrees although honestly I could just eat it as a meal!
How perfectly beautiful, Maggie, and love that it’s so quick and easy. The colours are so vibrant and now I know what to do with my Swiss chard!
I love all the colors-it’s so beautiful! I sometimes spend so much time looking for exact ingredients that I forget that using what’s available can make delicious food!
This tasted wonderful. I made it with all the excess Swiss Chard from the garden. Kids loved it also. Thank you.
Glad to hear you cooked the recipe and enjoyed! It’s so easy to make isn’t it 🙂
Looks delicious! I like the taste of Chard stir-fried in peanut oil. Cooking it this way (with the sugar, baby bok choy, & soy sauce) seems like a mouth watering combination.
I was googling a recipe to use Swiss chard in a stirfry because I had extra from my garden. I made this and paired it with rice & quinoa and a maple glazed tofu recipe. It was a great combo. I had extra ginger from the tofu recipe so I put that in the chard pan also.