Swiss Chard Recipe With Bacon (2024)

This Swiss Chard Recipe With Bacon is the perfect keto side dish that dresses up any meal in less than 20 minutes with only a few ingredients! If you're a fan of swiss chard, you're going to absolutely love this dish!

What Makes This Swiss Chard Recipe With Bacon So Terrific

So I decided to try my hand at gardening. Though I love all my beautiful plants, Swiss chard has got to be the queen of them all. It's been so much fun to harvest my own Swiss Chard and cook it while it's fresh!

I've always joked and said I could kill even fake plants. But with the automatic drip system, a brand new, well-composted flower bed, help from my friend John and my husband Roger, the little garden is doing quite well.

So I made this Swiss Chard Recipe With Bacon with it, but you know I could never just do bacon and Swiss chard. So I added a few other things, and I must say, it turned out so very good!

The addition of the pine nuts adds a delightful crunch and nuttiness to the dish and the raisins add a pleasant sweetness to compliment the swiss chard and bacon. This truly is a delightfully delectable swiss chard recipe, and if you've never had swiss chard before, this is a great way to be introduced to it!

Not only is this swiss chard recipe delectable, but it's also completely keto-friendly! You can enjoy it as a light lunch or as a side dish to compliment your main course, and since it's low carb, you can enjoy it on a regular basis!

What Does Swiss Chard Taste Like?

Swiss chard actually has a fairly similar flavor profile to spinach or kale, but a little more on the bitter side. Sauteing it, as I did with this Swiss Chard Recipe, takes away most of the bitterness and brings out its delightfully earthiness and sweetness. It's a fantastic leafy veggie that is full of potential in the kitchen, is low carb, and is loaded with nutrients like vitamin K, C and A!

How To Make This Swiss Chard Recipe With Bacon

1. Heat a heavy saucepan on medium-high and add the chopped bacon. Allow it to cook until the outside edges are crisped but the bacon isn't all the way crisp (about 5-8 minutes).
2. Add the smashed garlic cloves and press them down so most of the clove is touching the hot pan. I usually smash the garlic cloves with the flat of my knife.
3. Once the garlic is brown in spots, add in the pine nuts and the raisins and mix well.
4. Sauté until the bacon is cooked through, the garlic cloves and pine nuts are browned, and the raisins are plumped.
5. Add salt and pepper and stir well.
6. Add in Swiss chard and the ¼ cup of water.
7. Place a lid on the saucepan and cook for 3-4 minutes until the chard has just barely wilted. Remember the chard will continue to cook and wilt even when off the flame, so don't overcook it.
8. Stir well and serve.

Variation On This Swiss Chard Recipe

• If you're not a big fan of swiss chard, you can substitute Kale or Spinach. Simply reduce the cook time to 1-2 minutes.
• You can use Craisins in place of the golden raisins.
• Some great Pine Nut substitutions I recommend are walnuts, cashews, or slivered almonds.
• You can add even more depth to this dish by adding a teaspoon of ground cumin. I did this and it was absolutely wonderful!

Have Some Leftover Swiss Chard? Use It In These Other Delicious Recipes!

• This Italian Sausage Soup recipe gives you all the flavor of Zuppa Toscana without all the carbs! You can make this delicious recipe in under 30 minutes!
• This Moroccan Chickpea Soup in your Instant Pot is so easy! This vegan recipe is just dump and cook and is hearty and delicious!
• This Instant Pot Kenyan Kunde is a nutritious recipe with black-eyed peas and peanuts that makes a yummy, filling vegan recipe in your pressure cooker!

This quick and easy Swiss Chard Recipe with Bacon makes the perfect side for most any dish, so why don't you go ahead and make it with dinner tonight? And make sure to share this recipe with your friends on Pinterest and Facebook so they can enjoy it as well!