From Plot to Pot IV: Chard is delicious!

Chard grown in a raised bed. You can snap off the outer leaves only and keep harvesting for longer.

 Chard is one of my favourite vegetables. It can be used like spinach and it's very versatile. It's great in lasagne, curries, pasta sauces, simply stewed, raw in salads, with fish and meat. 

It contains many vitamins and minerals such as Vitamin Bs, C, K, A and iron, calcium, potassium. The young leaves can be eaten raw in salads, keeping all these nutrients intact. 

More mature leaves should be blanched and make a great addition to many dishes. 

Today I'm going for something a bit more fancy and amazingly delicious: spaetzle with a chard-gorgonzola sauce.




Spaetzle are traditional Swabian egg pasta and are prepared in a particular way. A specific tool is nowadays used for convenience sake, however, if you don't have a spaetzle grater you can also prepare them the traditional way.

For 2 portions you prepare a dough from           for 4 portions:
- 250g flour (I use bread flour)                          - 500g flour
- 3 medium-sized eggs                                      - 5 eggs
- 70-120ml water (or milk)                                - 150-200ml water
- a pinch of salt.                                               - double the pinch

spaetzle grater

Whisk till you get a smooth consistency. The dough should be thick but still runny, a bit firmer than pancake batter. Bring a large pot of water to boil and add some salt. Once the water is bubbly-boiling get your spaetzle grater out and fill with dough. Then start grating briskly to get small and knobbly spaetzle. If you don't have such a grater you can try the traditional way of putting some dough onto a chopping board. You then 'grate' small pieces of dough 

perfect spaetzle

with a knife into the boiling water. Takes a bit of practice to get small ones but the taste is still the same! Leave them to boil for another 2-3 min, then strain them. They are ready to eat now but I prefer to fry them a bit to give them that extra something.

For the sauce you need: 

- fresh chard                - a dash of cream
- 1 gorgonzola              - salt/pepper
- garlic and onion         - paprika powder


Blanch the chopped chard. Fry the onions and garlic. I tend to fry the thick parts of the stems together with the onions. Add all other ingredients and simmer until the gorgonzola has melted into a creamy consistency. Top the spaetzle with the sauce and serve! Again, it's fast and easy (at least if you have a spaetzle grater handy, the traditional method will take you longer). 

Most of all it's incredibly delicious......