I want to introduce you to one vegetable plant with an interesting and unusual name- Swiss chard. Planting and care in the open field is so easy that the hassle of growing will be minimal. I had an interesting story with Mangold beets. I sowed beet seeds somehow. I bought two varieties, made two furrows and sowed one variety into one and the other into the other. She threw out the seed bags without even bothering to remember their names. Both varieties emerged almost simultaneously.
It's time, I thinned my beets. Watered, loosened the aisles. Everything is as usual. And then I noticed that the tops on one row are more luxuriant, the leaves are large with thick red petioles. The leaf grows "stupid", has grown almost above the knee, and the root does not even think to be rounded. On the second, the leaves are much smaller, roots began to be tied. With a shrug, I decided that the seeds were to blame, I was out of luck with them. At first I wanted to pull out the unsuccessful beets - the granddaughter interfered, she liked the juicy beautiful leaves... How she guessed that they were edible, I don't know. But, coming to the dacha, the first thing she did was to run to this bed, pick off a whole bunch of leaves and eat them with pleasure.
Here's a funny story ...
Chard in the salad garden Just on next year Looking through information on the Internet, I learned that there is a special kind of beet - the Mangold leaf beet. It became interesting. I already bought Mangold seeds specially. And having received an incomparable harvest, I realized that I will never part with this again. amazing plant- Swiss chard. how many delicious dishes you can cook with it! I'll talk about this too, but a little later.
Mangold what is it
Chard is a pretty powerful plant, which can grow to a height of 60-70 cm. It depends on the variety. Mangold is a close relative of the common beet, but it does not form a root crop, but is valued precisely for its ground part - a lush rosette of large bubbly leaves, towering above the ground on tall thick petioles.
Chard has several names - shnitt chard, leaf chard, petiolate chard. It is grown for the sake of obtaining tasty and unusually healthy leaves.
Not only leaves are eaten, but also juicy fleshy stems, which, with proper care, reach a diameter of 7-8 mm. The petioles, just like the leaves, are incredibly rich in vitamins, minerals, trace elements and a variety of valuable compounds. If you introduce into your diet the regular use of this vegetable plant, you can the best way raise immunity, strengthen your health.
Of those varieties that I planted on my site, high yield especially liked mid-season variety Swiss chard, which allows the first cut of greenery 55-65 days after germination. The plant reaches a height of 50-60 cm, has large wavy dark green leaves and very thick petioles white, which are distinguished by their special juiciness and piquant taste.
Variety Bride The Krasavitsa variety, which ripens at the same time, is no less tasty. This Swiss chard variety also allows for several cuts per season and has a high yield. In addition, it is also unusually decorative: a lush rosette of green leaves with red veins reaches a height of 60-70 cm and looks very elegant in the garden, thanks to its bright crimson thick petioles. And he can decorate any flower garden!
Chard - care and cultivation
Mangold is unpretentious in care, and even a novice gardener can grow this culture. Its seeds begin to germinate already at a temperature of + 6-7 ° C, so I sow them on a garden bed filled with organic matter and mineral fertilizers, in the spring at the earliest possible date.
Young shoots of Swiss chard are cold-resistant and tolerate spring frosts down to minus 2 ° C without losses. For more early harvest this plant can be sown before winter, and to obtain delicate autumn greenery, it can be sown in August (in the Kuban). Only in hot summer conditions is it better to sow it to get a second harvest in partial shade and not let the soil dry out.
Chard is grown mainly as annual plant, but it can be left before winter - in the second year of life, it forms a tall peduncle with inflorescences, from which, after flowering, it will be possible to collect seeds and use them for future plantings.
How to plant chard
I sow the seeds in the grooves spilled with water and sprinkle them with a layer of earth 3-4 cm. When sowing with dry seeds, seedlings appear in the garden in 10-12 days. When 2-3 true leaves appear on the seedlings, I thin out, leaving 35-40 cm between the shoots. Soon the plants become stronger and actively start growing.
The main condition for obtaining good harvest tender juicy petioles and leaves are well-timed watering of chard.
Also, during the season I spend 2-3 feeding: the first one 7-10 days after germination, using nitrogen fertilizers, for the second and third feeding, which I spend with an interval of 17-20 days, I use complex fertilizers. But I advise you to reduce the dose of fertilizers for each feeding by half, than indicated in the instructions, in order to avoid the accumulation of nitrates in the "tops" of the leaf beet.
I also regularly loosen the aisles of the chard and weed out the weeds. During the cultivation of this culture, I have not yet found any signs of disease on it. But of the pests, snails are the most important enemies for Swiss chard. I am saved only by the Thunderstorm. Blue granules of Thunderstorms (remedy for slugs and snails) are periodically poured around the perimeter of the garden. The granules retain their properties even after 3-4 rains. Then, of course, you need to update, sprinkle the garden bed again, protecting it from snails, but there's nothing you can do about it ...
Features of harvesting chard
I begin to harvest the crop as it ripens, cutting off the petioles with leaves located at the edges of the rosette and without affecting its middle. In one cut, I remove no more than a quarter of the entire green mass, so as not to do much harm to the plant. With this approach, Swiss chard recovers very quickly and grows new greens in a short time.
Swiss chard harvest Chard, cooking recipes
Culinary experts around the world use Swiss chard to prepare main hot dishes and salads. Both leaves and young stems are used. The taste of fresh herbs with a slight sourness, and sometimes with bitterness, gives the dishes a special piquant and unique taste.
Preparation for salad Beetroot Swiss chard contains a large number of vitamins and various minerals, nutrients and acids. And you can eat the leaves, both fresh in salads, and as a filling for all kinds of pies. With them, you can cook soups, cook borscht or make stuffed cabbage rolls from the leaves. Well, you can, of course, freeze them. But I would not advise preserving the leaves - some kind of smear turns out. Petioles are a completely different matter.
Swiss chard stalks What does chard taste like? Fresh leaves - with a light, almost imperceptible sourness, and in the soup it looks more like spinach, but tastier than spinach. The taste is somewhat similar to spinach and beets at the same time - delicate and sour-sweetish. And how does it differ from beet tops? If the tops are young, then practically nothing. But you can't eat all of the beets, there will be nothing to feed on the root crops. And from chard, you can endlessly pick off the leaves, leaving the middle. They will grow back and grow back.
Cabbage rolls with Swiss chard leaves
Swiss chard cabbage rolls By the way, stuffed cabbage rolls made from Swiss chard leaves are something extraordinary. I tried it once - now I only do this: delicate, wavy, silk leaves, juicy petioles. Detailed recipe I will not write, since the filling is no different from the usual. Do you want to make meat filling, you want vegetable filling - whoever likes it. If the culinary experts advise you to boil cabbage leaves for cabbage rolls in salted water, cut or beat off tough veins so that they become softer and do not break when minced meat is wrapped in them, then everything is very simple with leaf beets. The leaves, like silk, roll inward by themselves! Stuffed cabbage rolls with Swiss chard leaves, believe me, it's very, very tasty!
Stewed Swiss chard cabbage rolls Beetroot pies chard
Open pie with chard leaves Cut the leaves into wide strips and cut the petioles into medium-sized cubes. Fry lightly until transparent onion, add chopped chard, simmer a little, season with salt. You can add your favorite spices. Cool, add a few chopped boiled eggs, mix. This is our mince.
I usually make a pie from purchased puff pastry.
I spread the minced meat on one sheet of puff pastry, cover it with another sheet of dough on top. I pinch the edges, slightly curling them up, pierce the top sheet with a fork in several places and place in a preheated oven. After 20-25 minutes I take out the browned pie.
Closed Swiss chard pie With the filling for the Swiss chard pie, you can safely fantasize. It won't taste bad! In the photo below, the puff pastry cake inside is grabbed by any hard cheese (you can Dutch, you can Parmesan), the filling does not crumble at all, you can safely serve it on a silver platter. Chard is tender, tender, and in combination with cheese and eggs, this is something unimaginable!
Pie with cheese, egg and chard Potatoes with Swiss chard
Boiled potatoes with Swiss chard I read this recipe on one of the forums on the Internet. I tried it, I liked it - I share it with you. You can eat it as an independent dish, or you can serve it as a side dish for fried or salted fish.
I boil the potatoes almost until cooked, rinse a large bunch of Swiss chard leaves (they boil down a lot during the cooking process), cut them with scissors into a pot with potatoes and cook the potatoes until cooked.
While everything is boiling, I quickly prepare the sauce: pour equal parts of olive and odorless sunflower oil into one bowl, add 2-3 large cloves of garlic finely chopped or passed through a garlic press, mix everything.
There are people who don't like the taste and smell. olive oil... It can be replaced with melted butter.
We drain the water from the potatoes and, while it is hot, pour in the oil and garlic. Aromatic, tasty, healthy!
Chard garnish for meat and fish dishes
Wonderful, lovely chard side dish! Lightweight, flawlessly tasty and incredibly healthy.
Cut the chard into 1.5 cm strips, blanch in salted water for 2 minutes. Squeeze out.
In a frying pan, heat any vegetable oil whichever you like, toss in 5 chopped cloves of garlic, fry until golden brown. Lay out the blanched and squeezed chard, salt, add a generous pinch of aromatic suneli hops from the market. Simmer covered for 10 minutes. Ready!
Garnish for stewed chard meat Salad of Swiss chard leaves, green onions with sour cream
The composition of the salad is indicated in the title.
Fresh greens salad with sour cream Who knows, he understands!
Scrambled eggs with Swiss chard
Scrambled eggs with beetroot Favorite breakfast food. It takes 5 minutes longer to cook (the leaves must be cut) than the usual one, but tastier and healthier.
I add chard to borscht.
Can be added to okroshka (just cut smaller).
And in salads, it will never be superfluous! Who loves greens, I advise you to try.
In general, Swiss chard is a great thing. It is unpretentious, grows pretty quickly, and is useful, of course. Nice. It can be different - with white stems, with yellow, with red.
Looks great in the garden! You can plant in flower beds!
I advise in the new season to be sure to plant this amazing culture on your site. Chard will not only help to diversify the usual diet and strengthen health, but will also become the main decoration, both in the garden and in the flower garden.
Chard leaves
Today we will prepare a dish of beetroot chard cutlets recipe. This requires chard leaves. This plant is biennial, but in our country house we plant it every year.
The leaves are very similar to beets, but it does not produce roots. And the leaves are used for cooking. There are also dishes and leaf stalks.
Before I start cooking, I'll tell you interesting story... When my mother was just starting to plant Swiss chard, she invited neighbors for cutlets. They ate the prepared dish with gusto. Noting at the same time how balanced the mother mixed the meat and greens. And there is no meat in the recipe. But it tastes like real schnitzel. And that's why.
Cooking Swiss chard - dish and recipes
We take 400 grams of fresh leaf. These are 15-20 pieces. We rinse thoroughly. You can cut off the petioles or chop them finely. We do a few longitudinal sections and shred the sheet across. We put in a deep dish (you can crush the leaves). We cut the greens. Onion. Garlic. Add the egg. A little oil (mayonnaise is possible). Seasonings. A little flour to make the mixture sticky (but don't overdo it). We mix.
Pour vegetable oil (or ghee oil) into a heated frying pan. Form patties with a spoon and fry until tender on both sides. Now we eat with gusto. Prepare a side dish if desired.
Recipe:
Chard - 400 gr. (15-20 large sheets)
Egg - 2-3 pcs.
Greens - a bunch (dill, cilantro, parsley)
Bow - 1 head
Garlic - 2 - 3 cloves
Vegetable oil - 2 - 3 tablespoons (in mass) + for frying
Condiments - pepper, salt, coriander, etc. taste
Flour - 2 - 5 tablespoons (depends on the moisture content of the leaf)
Chard benefit
The leaves are rich in trace elements: potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, iron
Contains a lot of vitamin K, as well as vitamins: A, B6, B12, C, D, E.
Dietary fiber, proteins, carbohydrates. There is also sugar.
A minimum of calories is one of the best foods for healthy way life and weight loss.
© Albert Shen
Watch the video: Recipe for making chard cutlets
If you are a fan of asparagus, you should definitely try Swiss chard, since most of its varieties are in no way inferior in taste, and sometimes even surpass this wonderful plant. Behind such a sophisticated name is hidden, but the beet is not ordinary, but leafy, whose root is completely unsuitable for food. Chard is divided into petiole and leaf. The latter has large, tender, fleshy leaves that form a powerful rosette. Petiolate chard may have stems different colors: silvery, green, yellow, red, etc. Some of its species look so beautiful that they are even grown as ornamental crops.
Mangold is in great demand in the cuisines of many nations, but, unfortunately, in our region it is not very popular. And completely in vain. Swiss chard leaves and petioles taste a bit like milk-ripened corn. Its juicy greens are often added to salads, stews and soups. The leaves are used as a cold snack and a side dish, mashed, salted and canned. The petioles are used like asparagus or cauliflower. They are stewed, boiled, baked, fried and harvested for the winter.
However, Swiss chard is prized not only for its excellent taste characteristics, but also for the benefits it brings to the body.
Why is Swiss chard useful?
The stems and leaves of chard are rich in many nutrients. They contain:
- Calcium, vitamin K and magnesium, which are the best for the health of teeth and bones.
- Iron, which is an excellent prevention of anemia.
- Lilac acid and fiber, which help normalize blood sugar levels.
- Condition-improving antioxidants skin and hair, as well as prolonging youth.
- B vitamins that help activate brain activity.
- Zeaxanthin and lutein are essential for good vision, and many other valuable components.
Chard, beneficial features which were known back in ancient greece, was used as a blood-purifying agent. With its help, they fought against blood diseases, fever and infectious diseases. Often this plant was used externally for skin problems.
In addition, Swiss chard has properties that promote vascular and heart health. It helps in the formation of blood cells, improves blood clotting, thereby preventing the formation of hematomas and the development of internal bleeding. Beetroot has a beneficial effect on the pancreas, prevents the development of atherosclerosis and helps to reduce blood pressure. V folk medicine it is used to combat obesity, anemia and kidney stones.
- Grind the chard leaves, pour boiling water over them so that they form a mushy mass, then add a spoonful of honey. Place the product warm on one layer of gauze and cover with another, and then apply to the face. Soak for a quarter of an hour, and then wash.
- Pour boiling water over a few Swiss chard leaves, cool slightly and place on your face. Remove after twenty minutes.
- Squeeze the juice out of the chard. In case of baldness, rub it in daily in the evening and leave it on overnight. This must be done for at least 1-2 months. To eliminate dandruff and improve hair condition, rub chard juice into the scalp and apply to strands half an hour before washing.
Chard- plant with nice name, which is better known as "beetroot".
Chard is more a vegetable than a herb (see photo). It is a wonderful decorative and medicinal plant will not only bring many benefits, but also decorate the garden.
The Swiss chard beet belongs to the amaranth family.
Chard varieties
Beetroot has several of the most famous varieties:
- Swiss chard is a stem vegetable often referred to as the herb stem. The multi-colored veins make the plant easily recognizable. A vegetable with red veins has a distinct aroma. In spring, it appears as one of the earliest plants.
- Shnitt-chard (chives) - this type of chard is called "roman cabbage". After being cut, the plant produces new leaves, which are highly prized in cooking. Schnitt chard is more frost-resistant than the Swiss variety.
Growing
You can grow chard in the garden and even in the flower garden. The plant will not spoil the flower bed at all, its juicy leaves, on the contrary, will decorate the territory. The vegetable propagates by seeds, they can be planted for 3 years, after this period the seeds will not sprout. Seeds germinate at a temperature of about 5 degrees.
An important feature of the leaf beet is its ability to accumulate natural nitrates when there is a lack of light. In order to protect yourself, it is enough to simply drain the water after washing the greens: this will remove up to 70% of nitrates.
For the winter, chard can be left to winter right on the garden bed, if you cover it well beforehand. So the plant will let its leaves go already in early spring and will yield crops until flowering.
Chard can be grown even on a windowsill if you provide it with maximum natural lighting. The plant will decorate the room with its bright leaves.
Beneficial features
The beneficial properties of chard were known to the doctors of Ancient Rome. The plant was used as a laxative. Oddly enough, leaf beets are much healthier than common beets: their greens contain many times more vitamins and minerals. Beetroot is highly prized in spring period, she will perfectly cope with vitamin deficiency and will decorate any festive table... The vegetable contains magnesium, sodium, potassium, which are so necessary for our body.
Cooking applications
In cooking, chard has found application in the preparation of a variety of salads. The pleasant taste, as well as the usefulness of the product, made it popular in many countries. Dishes using vegetables are usually extremely simple. Young Swiss chard leaves and cuttings are eaten. The low calorie content of the plant (only 19 kilocalories per 100 grams) allows you to prepare many healthy and dietary dishes from it.
Beetroot is widely used for the preparation of stuffed cabbage, beetroot, vinaigrette. A tasty and simple dish is obtained by boiling chard stalks and then frying them in butter with bread crumbs.
Chard is used for cooking many national dishes... "Bieta" ("red") - a traditional dish of Italian cuisine - is made from succulent leaves and stalks of beetroot. The name of the dish "red" is associated with bright color chard leaves.
The plant is best consumed freshly cut, since storage, even in the refrigerator, is not good for it. The French claim that beetroot can easily replace spinach, and its cuttings taste like asparagus.
The easiest Swiss chard recipe suggests folk cuisine... Fresh herbs must be finely chopped, mixed with green onions and season with sour cream. This salad is very healthy and low-calorie, it is perfect for heavy meat dishes.
Benefits of chard and treatment
The benefits of beet foliage make it possible to use it in medicinal purposes... Mangold is recommended to be introduced into the diet for people who suffer from diabetes and obesity. It is useful to use it when high blood pressure and anemia.
Mangold copes well with various inflammatory processes. For these purposes, the boiled leaves of the plant are applied to abscesses and burns. Scientists who have conducted research on Swiss chard have confirmed it medicinal properties... They found 9 active pigments in the leaves of the plant. The active substances cleanse the body and have an anti-inflammatory effect.
Compress of crushed fresh leaves is good for eye inflammation. Chard juice is used to remove warts, and freckles are also removed from it. In addition, the plant contains lutein, which helps vision and reduces the risk of developing cataracts.
Fiber and natural antioxidants in beet are effective cancer protectors. Regular consumption of vegetables in food will be a good prevention of cancer. Mangold also helps to normalize blood sugar levels thanks to the presence of fiber and lilac acid.
The dark green color of chard leaves indicates the presence of calcium, and this mineral substance, as you know, must regularly enter the body for the normal condition of teeth and bones. Beetroot is a real find for people whose body does not accept lactose. With lactose intolerance, a person is advised to diversify their diet with this vegetable. One cup of Swiss beet contains 100 mg of calcium.
Chard harm and contraindications
Beetroot can cause harm with individual intolerance. Fresh Swiss chard can cause nausea, drowsiness, and low blood pressure. This is due to the fact that the juice contains many volatile substances. For these reasons, it is better not to use freshly squeezed juice: it must be drunk several hours after pressing.
Eating large amounts of Swiss chard is not recommended for people with gallbladder or kidney disease. The vegetable is high in oxalates, which crystallize in the body, which can lead to poor well-being and health problems.
Mangold - biennial herbaceous plant, a type of common beet containing many useful substances. This culture has been known for more than three thousand years.
V Ancient rome highly prized dishes prepared from leaf beet... It is called "Roman cabbage", since the Romans did not have a single meal without dishes made from this plant. Besides being very useful, Swiss chard is also a beautiful plant.
Its bright decorative foliage will adorn any flower bed. Depending on the variety, this vegetable has yellow, green, red and silver leaf color. Since it is not difficult to grow it, many gardeners love Swiss chard. Wikipedia describes all the varieties of beetroot varieties. Most popular:
- red chard - "Beauty", "Ruby", "Scarlet";
- green chard - "Emerald", "Green", "Belavinka".
Unlike beets, Swiss chard does not form root crops. The main advantage of the plant is its leaves and petioles, which contain useful material, which the vegetable is so rich in.
Exists two types of plant:
- sheet;
- petiolate.
The leaf has a lush, well-developed rosette, located on thin petioles. They are used to make stuffed cabbage rolls and salads.
Petiolate differs from leaf petiole in that it has thick, wide petioles, used like asparagus. They are cooked like the leaves: they are boiled, steamed, fried, used to make side dishes. The root of both types is rod-shaped.
Since early spring, the beneficial properties of chard have been widely used to enrich the body with vitamins... The leaves of this plant are low in calories, but very useful product, it is often compared to spinach. Beet leaves contain about thirteen antioxidants. The main component is lilac acid, which is able to control blood sugar levels. In addition, chard is a source of phytonutrients or betalains, which are excellent at removing toxins from the body. The vegetable contains many vitamins, iron, phosphorus and carotene. The use of Swiss chard improves the functioning of the digestive tract, helps to normalize blood pressure.
100 grams of cooked chard contains:
- 38% vitamin A;
- 300% vitamin K;
- 22% of vitamin C from the daily intake. These figures exceed only spinach alone, which is why Swiss chard is considered one of the most useful vegetables.
Mangold: benefit and harm
Eating leaf beets can help prevent many diseases. This vegetable will help for:
- normalization of blood sugar levels;
- improving brain activity;
- normalization of the work of the heart muscle;
- improving blood circulation;
- strengthening and accelerating hair growth;
- useful for bones and spine, for vision, with anemia.
However, despite everything its beneficial properties, you should not abuse the vegetable, you need to observe the measure in everything.
Beetroot is contraindicated when:
- tendency to allergies to this product;
- use vitamin complexes, since it contains a lot of vitamin K and an overdose is possible;
- the presence of varicose veins and a tendency to form blood clots;
- diseases of the kidneys, gallbladder.
Sowing
You don't need any special agronomic knowledge to grow Swiss chard. The varieties of this plant are subdivided into green petiolate, red petiolate, yellow petiolate and silver petiole, depending on the color of the petiole. Having decided on the variety, the seeds are pre-soaked for 2-3 days in a damp cloth. For sowing, use spacious containers, since it is better to plant in open ground seedlings when the soil warms up well. However, you can sow directly to the garden on May 8-12, with more early dates the crops must be covered with foil. But it should be remembered that due to low temperatures air early crops can bloom.
For planting chard it is better to take a light area with non-acidic soil. Vegetables need natural nutrition, so they add to the soil organic fertilizers and charcoal to enrich it with potassium and reduce acidity. The seeds are buried in the ground to a depth of 2-3 centimeters at a distance of 5 centimeters from each other. Seedlings must be thinned to ensure good ventilation and food. To obtain juicy, large rosettes, the distance between plants should be at least 10 centimeters.
Mangold is a moisture-loving plant and demanding nutrition, therefore, once every 10 days, it needs to be fed with green fertilizers (herbal infusions), mullein solution, or chicken droppings(0.5 liters per 10 liters of water).
Plant care consists in loosening the soil, controlling weeds, and watering as needed. Although the vegetable tolerates heat quite easily, nevertheless optimum temperature cultivation - 25 ° C. Don't plant it next to spinach, best neighbors- carrots, onions, lettuce and cabbage.
First harvest can be obtained as early as 30 days after landing. The leaves in the rosette will grow thicker the more you cut them. Usually collected large leaves, and after 7-8 days, small leaves grow, making up the next harvest. At one time, about 25% of the leaves located with outside at a height of three centimeters, together with the petioles, leaving no columns, as they rot. Care should be taken not to damage the outlet or cut off the growing point of the plant.
Chard is not afraid of frost, so you can leave it in the ground, but it's better to dig up the roots, put it in a box, cover it with sand and send it to the basement. And you can dig up a plant with a clod of earth, plant in a spacious pot to grow on a windowsill in winter period... Since chard is a biennial plant, flowers and seeds develop in the second year.
Chard varieties are widely used for food, as it is very useful. How to cook Swiss chard, each housewife decides for herself in accordance with gastronomic preferences... It can be added to salads, canned, boiled, fried. When boiling a plant, after boiling, the water must be drained, since it contains a lot of nitrates, then a new one is poured and boiled until tender. Beetroot goes well with other vegetables, meats and cheese.
