Swiss Chard!

Well we had a ton of swiss chard.  We planted it in our backyard and it really took off.  There was a period of time when we didn't harvest any so the other day we decided to really cut it back.  We ended up with about 4 or 5 pounds of Swiss Chard.  That maybe doesn't sound like much, but 5 pounds of leaves is quite a pile.  We made a big salad, used some in scrambled eggs, enchiladas and ate some straight, but we still had a whole bunch left over.  So we decided to try and make chard chips.  We've tried Kale chips before and they were very good.  We found someone online that did chard chips so maybe they would be similar.  To make a long story short they were good, but making them was much more difficult.  Swiss Chard leaves are much thinner than Kale and they also have much more water content.  Which means that you have to be extra careful about not letting them overlap at all.  When they overlap the water gets trapped in the leaves underneath and they steam instead of dry out.  Then you just end up with a tray of steamed Swiss Chard.  It's not a terrible situation, but 5 pounds of steamed Swiss Chard is pretty hard to eat with any expediency.  I suppose you could freeze it though.  Luckily I made that mistake on only my first tray.  Needless to say I had my fill of steamed Swiss Chard that night.  I was able to pull off some good chips from the outer half of the tray.  They were good, the kids liked them and we ate almost everything.  But I think if I were to do it again I'd leave the chips to the Kale and just freeze Swiss Chard after steaming it.  Another thing to try is Swiss Chard rolls.  I'll let my plants grow back and try that next time. 

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