Pickled Ribs of Swiss Chard
If there’s one thing I hate, its wasting food. Having worked in professional kitchens, I’ve seen mountains of it. The best chefs I worked for utilized as much as possible, from stale breads to bacon fat, parmesan rinds and vegetable scraps. Other chefs apparently had magical food budgets that didn’t run out of money… One thing I never, ever saw used in either scenario were Swiss Chard ribs. Piles of these hearty, thick stems of these divine, leafy greens were always dumped into garbage bins.
Its not that these ribs are inedible, they just don’t cook evenly with the sturdy, though much thinner leaves. They are therefore often trimmed out from about a quarter of the way down from the top of the leaf, and then discarded. They are quite neutral in flavor, more subtle than say, celery. As scraps they wouldn’t add anything to a stock or sauce like a parsley or mushroom stem. Of course they can be cooked and eaten on their own, or added to a pan to cook a little before throwing in the leaves.
Waiting to be trimmed and washed.
For some reason this fall, I’ve been addicted to this vegetable which holds up better than spinach and is less astringent (though don’t get me wrong, I LOVE me some spinach!). I’ve been cleaning, cooking and eating about a bunch per week since September. I will admit, for the first couple of times, I trashed the stems just out of habit.
I regret that.
Finally a few weeks ago, I found myself staring at two piles of multi-colored Swiss chard bunches. There would be a sizeable amount of ribs. Too beautiful to throw out. Feeling guilt at the thought of their loss, I considered two options: either I could make kimchi, a spicy fermented Korean preparation, or I could pickle them. I opted for the latter as I was missing the ingredients to make any type of kimchi.
Pre-blanch.
I did what I always do when I try something new: checked out what I had in the house and went for it. I made a basic brining solution with elements of sweet, sour, and spicy from various herbs and seasonings. I must say, I got really lucky on the first try. The Swiss chard ribs worked beautifully. I think I could’ve added more chili flakes as the heat mellowed out a bit, but other than that I’m happy with this recipe (I may try the kimchi another day).
PICKLED SWISS CHARD RIBS
makes about 4 cups
4 C chard ribs, trimmed of dirty ends and cut to desired length
1 C red wine vinegar
1 1/4 C water
1 C sugar
1 tsp whole black peppercorn
1/2 tsp red chili flakes
3 ea whole cloves
1 tsp salt
1 ea bay leaf
Set a pot of salted water to boil. Prepare a bowl with ice water.
When the water boils, drop the chopped ribs into the water, and cook about 1 1/2 minutes, or until tender with a slight crunch. Remove from pot, shock in the ice water, drain, and set aside in a glass jar.
Combine remaining ingredients into a pot. Bring to a boil. Pour over the ribs and allow to cool to room temperature. Cover tightly and store in the fridge.
10 comments
cool. good idea.
there’s another use for chard stems that I’ve been wanting to try in the Zuni Cafe cookbook. She takes crisp stems, coats them in beaten egg, dips in flour, back in the egg, and then a dredge in breadcrumbs… Into the fridge for a half an hour, then a deep fry at 365˚F. served with grated parmesan. sounds kind yummy, right?
Talley: Can’t go wrong with a nice deep frying, I’m sure those taste good.
I’ve been in pickling mode with the winter coming on, so thanks for this.
I love to throw chard stems in a blazing pan with sesame oil, vinegar, honey, tons of hot pepper flakes and cashews. This is my perfect accompaniment for an ice cold after-work beer.
David: You’re welcome. The sautéed chard stems you mention sound delicious, such a nice combination of flavors. Especially with the beer!
what a simply fabulous idea! i can’t wait to try this out!
thats a beautiful looking pickle!!! love the idea of using chard for kimchi, thanks for the tips!!
Thank you, Giao and 3hungrytummies! I actually made another batch last night and added some garlic to the brine. Will see how it turns out.
when you say “3 ea whole cloves”, you are referring to garlic cloves, yes?
clg: Clove spice.
[...] a lot of stems to the compost bin, I wanted to pickle the stems instead. My first batch involved this recipe, which I found after putting “pickled chard stems” into google. I used mostly chard [...]
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