The greens smackdown
Swiss Chard
I had one bunch of swiss chard and one bunch of beet tops in my fridge and decided to cook both since they needed to be used and greens cook down so much that it would be just enough for Terri and I anyway. I considered cooking them together since they are so similar but saw an opportunity for a side by side taste comparison and couldn’t resist.
Beet Tops
The swiss chard is a little prettier since its stems and veins are so red but the beet tops are a very close second in the looks department. I cooked them exactly the same way, sauteing a little diced garlic and diced shallots in olive oil, then adding the greens and half a ladle of chicken stock once they cooked down a little. I salted them—over-salted them actually but they were equally over-salted so I still feel like it was a fair comparison.
In the end Terri had no preference and said they were both good. She may have just been being nice to the cook. My bias was toward the swiss chard since I paid for it and the beet tops come free with the purchase of a bunch of beets. The chard also held its color a little better and I always prefer more aesthetically pleasing foods. I have to say however that the beet tops tasted a little better. The swiss chard had a bitterness that was so slight that I wouldn’t have noticed it if I weren’t comparing it to the beet greens but I have to give the milder beet tops the win in this case. I won’t hesitate to buy swiss chard in the future since you don’t have to by beets to get them but free greens that come as an accessory to the vegetable you are buying that taste as good or better than greens you pay good money for are hard to argue with.