Swiss chard

The leaf blades are eaten cooked and chopped, like spinach. The "ribs" – the leaf stalk extended by the main vein, which are very fleshy in the chard varieties – are also eaten, like cardoons.

Widely used in Niçoise cooking, every part of the plant can be eaten: the chopped leaves go into Swiss chard pie, ravioli and the famous tian. The green part is used wherever spinach would be used elsewhere, and the ribs can be prepared in several ways: steamed with a squeeze of lemon, fried, or as a gratin with béchamel sauce.

In the Swiss canton of Graubünden, chard is used to make capuns, a traditional dish of chard leaves stuffed with a mixture of dough and dried meat