Red Chard and Caramelized Onions

  4.4 – 139 reviews  • Onion

Chicken chunks are covered in an aromatic mixture of spices, including cloves, cardamom, and turmeric, and then cooked in a tomato sauce. The whole family enjoys this dish. Additionally, I’ve served it to visitors at my house and brought it to potlucks. The recipe is requested by everyone. It makes a fantastic supper in a slow cooker.

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 20 mins
Total Time: 30 mins
Servings: 4
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

  1. 1 large yellow onion, chopped
  2. 2 tablespoons olive oil
  3. 1 teaspoon brown sugar
  4. 1 bunch red Swiss chard, rinsed and chopped
  5. ¼ cup kalamata olives
  6. 2 tablespoons capers
  7. ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt, or to taste
  8. freshly ground black pepper to taste
  9. 1 lemon, juiced

Instructions

  1. In a cast iron skillet, cook onions in olive oil over medium-high heat until they begin to brown. Stir in brown sugar, and continue cooking for a few minutes.
  2. When onions are brown and tender, stir in chard and olives. Cook until chard is slightly wilted. Stir in capers and salt, and continue cooking until chard is completely wilted, about 3 minutes. Season with black pepper and squeeze lemon over the top.

Reviews

Jeffrey Zuniga
I’ve received A LOT of chard with a grocery delivery service. This was a welcome change from the general recipes for chard. I lacked olives; will include them next time.
Christopher Cabrera
Delicious! Made it exactly like the recipe. Glad to find such a tasty recipe to use my chard from my garden. I will definitely use this recipe again!
Kimberly Payne
I didn’t have Kalamatas but threw the capers in, and only a half of a lemon. Left the brown sugar out, it didn’t need it. Delicious side dish to our grilled sockeye. I would definitely repeat this recipe!
David Williams
Very nice. It is now a regular side dish for us. Easy to make too.
Corey Holmes
I substituted about 1/2 packet of organic stevia for the brown sugar as I avoid all refined sugar and artificial sweeteners. I tasted without stevia first and was bitter. The stevia was just the right touch to take out the bitterness. Great healthy recipe. I’ll definitely make it again
David Robinson
The dish came out wonderful! I used 3 1/2 sweet onions and 2 bunches of swiss chard and it was the right amount for my dinner party of 10. I left out the capers and only used half the olives. But what frustrates me about this recipe and other recipes about caramelizing onions is that it DOES NOT TAKE a few minutes. To get a good caramelization, plan on anywhere from 30-40 minutes. Yes, you have to stir it to make sure it doesn’t burn but it is so worth it. My guests enjoyed it and I shared the recipe (along with the caramelizing REAL time) with those who asked. But please note that it takes a lot longer than stated to make this yummy.
Anna Moreno
I made this just as written. It was one of the best vegetable dishes I have ever eaten. My husband loved it and asked that I make it again soon!
Tara Campbell
Even the kids loved it!
Julie Mcdonald
Yum. I will be making this again. Haven’t cooked with chard for years. I did use coconut sugar and only half a lemon but it made a wonderful zingy side dish with rice and other vegetables!
Raymond Ingram
Made this recipe exactly as given. We liked it very much. Very Tasty. Starting eating Paleo in November and though my husband is not going Paleo, he is eating what I cook for dinner. I’m always looking for new recipes. Thanks.
Jessica Johnson
This is an awesome flavourful recipe. I used fresh beet greens in place of the Swiss chard. We loved it!
Susan Woodward
This was OK. I expected more flavor. I did rinse the capers and olives. Perhaps I shouldn’t have. I also recommend chopping the olives so the flavor disperses more in the dish. My husband loved it; my daughter didn’t like it at all. I served it over polenta to which I added some cheese and added a can of garbanzo beans to the dish for protein, making a vegetarian meal out of it. It is worth trying again and tweaking a bit to add more spice.
Kimberly Castaneda
My new favorite way to prepare chard. You can’t make this without the capers and/or olives and call it the same dish, though. Their flavors add so much!
Angel Contreras
This is so good. It’s become a regular side dish. My husband even asked for it when we were shopping and saw the chard in the produce dept. That’s a rare event!
Larry Herrera
I was very excited to try this recipe as I’ve never had swiss chard before. I was given several bunches so the first batch was prepared as written. The result was just OK. To me, it lacked a little something but was a good basic recipe. I wanted something more savory. Now the second batch was really good after I made substitutions and additions. Instead of olive oil I used seasoned pork belly fat that I had left over. I used 1/2 tbsp of rice wine vinegar instead of lemon juice and omitted the brown sugar. Added 1 tbsp minced garlic, 1 small red jalapeno seeded and sliced, 1/2 large red bell pepper diced, 1/3 c diced celery, 1 pinch of chipotle powder and Badia Complete Seasoning to taste. I used all the other ingredients. I served the 2nd batch with herb-parmesan crusted flounder and honeyed white rice. Yum! All the men, when pressed to make a choice, preferred the 1st batch but oddly enough all the women preferred the 2nd. I’ll definitely make it again with the subs.
Alyssa Myers
I made this exactly as stated, it was delicious! I put over sliced polenta and put a little Parmesan on it. I can see where if you don’t like olives or capers you might not like it. Next time I will rinse the capers, forgot but rinsed the olives. I might cut back a little on the lemon juice next time and see how I like it.
Anna Williams
Wow! So so delicious!! The caramelized onions made this dish extraordinary.
Stephanie Russo
Easy and quick. I served it over quinoa.
Kelsey Woods
I really enjoyed this. I agree it doesn’t need salt when using capers. I added heart of Palm – out of olives- and it was delightfully different.
Sandy Little
I’m not a fan of swiss chard, but this recipe at least made it eatable.
Shirley Edwards
This was a great way to introduce a new green veggie into our diet and try something new for my family. I didn’t have olives but didn’t miss them. I reduce salt to half that amount, but I kept the capers (they are salty enough already). I added a little extra brown sugar to the onions. I only had maybe 3/4 of my chard still good, the rest had gone a little bad, so I SHOULD have reduced my oil amount, but I added too much, so mine was a little oily and doesn’t *look* as pretty as the picture, but it tastes wonderful! I kept a few red stems but not all. I added TONS of pepper because we like pepper. The lemon juice was lovely, too. Overall, great side dish!

 

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