Sauteed Swiss Chard Recipe (Turkish Pazı Kavurma)

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We’re back on the seasonal food train for this recipe – sauteed Swiss chard done the Turkish way: Pazı kavurma.

Spring leafy greens are in abundance. And, amongst other salad stuffs, herbs and vegetables, the local markets are currently brimming with Swiss chard.

Very reasonably priced Swiss chard at that! We can’t not buy it.

Stacks of fresh Swiss chard on a market stall — It’s Swiss chard – pazı – season

Whilst it looks so vibrant and lush when it’s all piled high on the stalls of Çalış Sunday market, it can also seem a bit intimidating as an ingredient.

A hefty-sized bunch of green leafy vegetables with crisp white stems.

What to do with them?

One cert of life in Turkey: If the market stalls are brimming with a particular vegetable, there are Turkish recipes out there to make use of that produce.

So, if you’ve been looking for Swiss chard recipes, this sauteed chard makes for a really easy side dish that goes well with so many other dishes.

A bowl of sauteed Swiss chard with peppers and onions — We love this Swiss chard recipe – pazı kavurma

And, as we’re cooking with a leafy green vegetable, we’re also going to end up with a really healthy side dish that can also be enjoyed by vegetarians and vegans.

Chard Is A Superfood

And, if you’re looking to add more superfoods to your diet, a simple Swiss chard recipe like this can give you the boost you need.

Oodles of vitamins – Vitamins K and A in abundance – and lots of antioxidants.

We’re not nutritionists so we won’t go into all the fabulous Swiss chard benefits.

Obviously, there’s a whole rabbit hole of information you can go down when researching this for yourself.

Our 2-For-1 Swiss Chard Recipe

The great thing about chard is that you have a lovely contrast between leaf and stem.

You can use both chopped leaves and chopped stalks in your sauteed Swiss chard recipe, if you like.

But, we also have a great way to enjoy Swiss chard stems alongside our sauteed, dark green leaves.

When we have spinach recipes, we love to make use of the stems in a quick and tasty side dish of spinach stem salad.

With chard, it’s the same.

We have a simple recipe that really celebrates the stems, so we chop those off and keep them to one side.

Our Sauteed Swiss Chard Recipe Ingredients

But let’s concentrate on our pazı kavurma – Turkish sauteed chard – for now.

These are our main ingredients (For the full sauteed chard recipe with ingredients and method, see the recipe card below).

Roughly chopped chard leaves. Chard can have an earthy taste so give these large leaves a good wash and then dry them off in a salad spinner before chopping them.
Wash your chard stems and keep those to one side. We have an extra treat for those.
Sliced onion. A good Turkish kavurma dish most often makes use of onion. Some kavurma recipes have finely chopped onion but we prefer it thinly sliced.
Sweet red pepper. This is one of our additions. We love the sweetness against the slightly bitter taste of the chard. In Turkey, at this time of year, we can get large, long, red chillies that are hot but also sweet. These are perfect for both a bit of heat but also oodles of flavour.
Garlic. Because we can’t not have garlic. This will be crushed to release flavour and then thinly sliced. If you love loads of garlic, this dish is perfect for that!
A little olive oil for frying.
Spices – a pinch of red pepper flakes (pul biber) and sweet paprika. Heat and colour!
Nar ekşisi – pomegranate molasses. If you can’t get pomegranate molasses, you can use fresh lemon juice or a splash of balsamic vinegar.

How We Make Sauteed Swiss Chard – Pazı Kavuma

It’s all very easy.

First of all, we heat our olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and add our onions and peppers.

Chopped leaves with onions and peppers frying in a pan — Your chard leaves will wilt down as they cook

After 4-5 minutes, it’s in with the chopped Swiss chard leaves and the garlic.

Chard leaves are similar to spinach leaves so don’t worry if they appear to be overtaking the pan.

They’ll soon wilt down and become a beautiful bright green colour.

In with our salça (tomato paste) and spices. Then we mix those around for 1-2 minutes until everything is coated and then we add a splash of water.

This is where we allow the chard mixture to slowly cook for a little longer, adding more water if needed.

You don’t want it to be runny, but you don’t want dry, either.

Serving Up Your Turkish-Style Sauteed Chard

And then that’s it. Time to serve!

A bowl of Turkish pazı kavurma — Our bowl of vibrantly coloured sauteed Swiss chard – pazı kavurma

Healthy, delicious and wonderfully colourful.

Turkish cuisine has a number of ways of using sauteed greens.

And why not? Pazı kavurma is such a simple sauteed Swiss chard recipe. But it is so tasty.

You can either enjoy it as a main meal with a serving of Turkish rice or bulgur pilaf.

Or, you can recreate a lokanta-style table and serve it as one of your vegetable side dishes along with your meat plates.

And if you know Turkish food, you’ll know there’s a distinct love of yoghurt in this country.

Of course, it’s common to serve your pazı kavurma with a big generous dollop of yoghurt on top.

And, of course, you could always use vegan yoghurt, if you are vegan.

Try it. It’s a winner!

What About Those Stems?

As we said, the chard stems can be chopped and cooked into your kavurma if you like.

For us, however, the stems of Swiss chard are too good for that.

Leave them intact and heat your frying pan with a bit of sunflower oil on a medium-high heat.

Simply saute them for a few minutes on each side until they soften and colour.

A plate of sauteed chard stems coloured with paprika and pomegranate molasses — Serve along with your sauteed chard leaves

Whilst they’re sizzling in the pan, sprinkle in some salt, pepper, chilli flakes and a splash of pomegranate molasses.

Another super quick, tasty side dish made from the same bunch of Swiss chard.

Sauteed Swiss Chard – FAQs

Is Swiss chard from Switzerland?

No. It apparently originates in Sicily. It’s thought the ‘Swiss’ adjective comes from the nationality of the botanist who first described it. That botanist was Swiss.

Is chard known by other names?

If you want to make our sauteed chard recipe – pazı kavurma – this leafy green vegetable has lots of other names to look out for.

As it is a member of the beet family, chard is also known as silver beet, beet spinach, seakale beet and beet spinach in the UK, for example.

Other names include Roman kale, Sicilian beet and leaf beet.

Are there different types of chard?

The chard (pazı) we buy on Çalış and Fethiye market has crisp white stems that contrast with the rich green of the leaves.

It appears that this is the Barese Swiss chard variety which is more delicate than the others.

Wherever you live, you could come across other types of chard with varying colours of the stems.

The different type of chard reaches into three figure numbers and you might see it for sale with smooth leaves and white stems (as in the type we have used in our recipe), crumpled leaves, red stems, yellow stems, leaves and stems with shades of magenta.

It’s a beautiful vegetable with equally beautiful variety names such as ‘Bright Lights,’ ‘Rhubarb Supreme’ and ‘Pink Lipstick.’

How long does sauteed Swiss chard keep in the fridge?

You can keep your sauteed Swiss chard in the fridge for 3 days in an airtight container.

Are there other Turkish chard recipes?

Because chard is similar to spinach, it is used in similar ways in Turkish cuisine.

With Turkish spinach and eggs (ıspanaklı yumurta), for example, you can substitute the spinach for chard.

When we have leftovers of of our sauteed Swiss chard recipe (pazı kavurma), we also like to scramble some egg into it to make a nutrition rich, chard-filled menemen (pazılı menemen).

As we said in the article above, it also goes well with bulgur and rice. And if you want to add some meat, chicken, minced beef and sucuk are all tasty additions.