In this quick and simple Italian-inspired dish, garden fresh Swiss chard is rapidly cooked with olive oil, garlic, and capers.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 25 mins |
| Servings: | 2 |
| Yield: | 2 servings |
Ingredients
- ⅓ pound whole-wheat spaghetti
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 bunch Swiss chard, chopped
- 1 teaspoon capers
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice, or to taste (Optional)
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese, or to taste
Instructions
- Fill a large pot with lightly salted water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Once the water is boiling, stir in the spaghetti, and return to a boil. Cook the pasta uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the pasta has cooked through, but is still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Drain well in a colander set in the sink.
- Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in the garlic, and cook for 1 minute to soften. Add the Swiss chard. Cook and stir until the stems of the chard are tender. You can use some of the hot pasta water to help steam the chard in the covered pan.
- Stir the hot spaghetti into the chard mixture along with the capers. Season to taste with salt and black pepper, and drizzle with lemon juice if desired. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese to serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 453 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 62 g |
| Cholesterol | 9 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 12 g |
| Protein | 17 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 444 mg |
| Sugars | 4 g |
| Fat | 18 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This is my new favorite dish. We have swiss chard in our garden and needed more ideas for how to prepare it. This was so delicious. We did use a bit more garlic (4 cloves) and added crushed red pepper to give it a little kick. LOVED it!
This was so good. I got chard in my CSA box and had no idea what to do with it. I was skeptical I would even like it! I don’t like capers, so I think that was the only thing I left out and the flavors were amazing! Thank you!
Excellent and simple! I’ve never made Swiss chard before but this recipe made it easy. I substituted Palmini for pasta because we don’t do carbs, and followed the rest of the recipe as-is. Thank you for opening us up to a new leafy green that’s so good for us!
Very easy and basic, but still manages to have loads of flavor. I added a little lemon zest with the juice, and it helped boost flavor. Save the pasta water and use it to help turn the lemon juice, cheese, and all into a sauce.
I used elbow pasta because I needed to use up extra cooked pasta from the fridge. I wish there was some sort of a crunch element to the texture – maybe I’ll try it with pine nuts next time, but overall, quite tasty.
Very nice combination. I also added red pepper flakes with the garlic.
I eliminated the addition of salt, and added some sliced Kalamata olives, & also increased the amount of garlic, capers, Parmesan cheese & lemon juice. I topped the dish off with shifanoted Italian parsley. (My rating reflects the changes which I made. Otherwise, I would have given it 3*s.)
Easy and excellent! Will become a staple in my recipes.
Perfect as written. I can see using this same basic recipe with any tender green. My only change was to use bow tie pasta.
No changes and will make again!
i guessed at the amounts because I harvested the chard from my garden and since I do not like capers so I left them out but otherwise it was the same and it was so good. My husband and I really loved it. Couldn’t quit eating.
Very hearty side dish. Plain, simple way to use chard from the garden. I used whole wheat penne, subbed minced red bell pepper for capers (didn’t have any) and omitted lemon juice. Will definitely make again!
Yum! I didn’t have capers and not enough Swiss chard but I did add tomatoes and onion and it was really good!
Just made this for lunch with rainbow chard… we didn’t have capers so I used pine nuts instead. My 14 year old daughter was complaining when she saw what I was making… but she loved it and had seconds!
It was okay. I doubled the amount of garlic in it and it still wasn’t garlicky enough for my taste. I used about 11 oz. of chard, based on what google told me a “bunch” was. This was my first time cooking with chard. While it was easy enough, I don’t know if it will become a regular in my veggie rotation.
Added sautéed mushrooms. Next time gonna try it with Pecorino Romano instead of Parmesan.
I love greens and this recipe hit the spot! For more flavor, add some lemon zest to the Swiss chard when it’s cooking. I didn’t add onion because that make it too sweet, but one can never put too much garlic!
Very flavorful and satisfying for such a quick recipe with so few ingredients. Added a little extra grated pram to the plates.
We doubled the garlic and capers, added tomatoes out of the garden. Delicious recipe!
I used this recipe as a base, it seemed kind of boring with just the chard. I sauted an onion before adding the chard. I also added some fresh green beans to the pasta while it was cooking and diced ham when I combined everything. It was pretty good, next time I’ll make more of a sauce for it. Spinach would also work great in it.
Wonderful. We made it with 4 leaves of rainbow chard, a handful of spinach and no capers (forgot to buy them). Very yummy.