These rainbow chard bowls are a delicious weeknight dinner! With 10 ingredients, they're easy to make, but they pack a punch of flavor.
As a kid, I was obsessed with everything rainbow – my Rainbow Brite doll, a fresh new Crayola 64 pack (with built in sharpener!), and best of all – the rainbow-neon terminal at O’Hare airport. Pure magic. Nowadays, I have a new grownup rainbow obsession: rainbow chard.
Cooking with Rainbow Chard
If you’ve never cooked with rainbow chard before, it has a slightly bitter, earthy taste that I love to pair with sweet, tangy, and nutty accents. Aside from its gorgeous vibrant color, it has a special superpower: it’s kind of two vegetables in one! Not only can you use the chard leaves, but the chard stems are also delicious – they add a lovely crunch to a stir fry, a simple vegetable side dish, or a bowl like this one. Just sauté them for a few minutes before adding the greens to the pan, or pickle them for an extra bright pop.
Rainbow Chard Bowls
These bowls are simple and warm. They put the rainbow chard front and center, so they’re a great way to feature a big bunch of greens from the farmers market. To make them, I cooked some whole wheat orzo and tossed it with a little olive oil, garlic, Dijon, and lemon. (Mustard and chard are a really terrific flavor match). I topped each bowl with a healthy serving of sautéed rainbow chard, a little feta cheese, and some toasted walnuts.
Quick beauty tip: you’ll want to serve these bowls with the ingredients assembled rather than tossed together. (As the colors run together it’s just not the prettiest!).
Rainbow Chard Recipe Variations
These rainbow chard bowls are easy to vary depending on what you have in your pantry. Here are a few ways I like to change them up:
- No orzo on hand? Toss the chard leaves with spaghetti, or assemble the bowls with quinoa or farro.
- Add a handful of golden raisins to each bowl – the pop of sweetness is excellent alongside the earthy Swiss chard!
- Use pine nuts or toasted almonds in place of the walnuts.
- Swap the feta for crumbled soft goat cheese.
- Use a splash of red wine or sherry vinegar instead of the lemon.
Let me know what variations you try!
If you love these rainbow chard bowls…
Try this rice bowl, this poké bowl, this quinoa bowl, or this adzuki bean bowl next!
Rainbow Chard Bowls
- 1 cup uncooked whole wheat orzo
- 1+ tablespoons olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
- A few squeezes of lemon
- 1 small bunch of rainbow chard (about 4-5 leaves)
- ⅓ cup feta cheese
- ¼ cup toasted walnuts
- Sea salt and fresh black pepper
- Prep your chard by slicing off the coarse parts of the stems and dicing them. Coarsely chop the greens and set aside.
- Cook orzo in a pot of salted boiling water according to package directions (or about 9 minutes).
- In a medium bowl add 1 tablespoon olive oil, minced garlic, dijon mustard, lemon, salt and pepper. Once your orzo is done cooking, drain it and then add it to this bowl and toss. (the heat of the pasta will gently cook the raw garlic). Taste, adjust seasonings and set aside.
- In a medium skillet, heat a few teaspoons of olive oil, then add the chard stems, salt and pepper. Next, add the chard leaves and toss until just wilted (less than 2 minutes). Finish with a squeeze of lemon and remove from heat.
- Assemble bowls with orzo, chard, feta and toasted walnuts.
Make this vegan by skipping the cheese and topping it with a few capers.
Cutting Board: Calphalon Kitchen Essentials from Target
Knife: Miyabi Birchwood 7″ Santoku
This recipe looks amazing! The only problem
is that I have a strong aversion to mustard. Would you be able to recommend anything I could substitute? Thank you!
If healthy food looks as beautiful as this, then it’s always a bit easier to pass on the alternative juicy burger. I can’t wait to try this in the summer when I’ve finally let go of my warming soup bowl!!
that’s a great dish I cant wait to make it for my family.ty
Rainbow chard is the best, one of nature’s shining stars, xo!!
Great meal specially for vegeterian…
I loved Rainbow Brite, too! This recipe looks great, though. I adore orzo and find it so under-used! Thanks!
This looks like something yummy to try… I’m avoiding wheat… so I may substitute brown rice pasta or quinoa pasta… but WOW.. this really looks pretty in the pictures even though you say the colors start running
Yep, you could definitely sub in quinoa or brown rice pasta. Ha, after you start eating it and mixing it around, it gets a little ugly.
Hi Dawn, My husband has a gluten intolerance too. Tonight we made this with wild rice since I had some on hand. We loved it! Thanks for the recipe Jeanine! It was delicious. I will definitely be making it again.
Hi Kelly – I’m so glad you liked it! Glad it was delicious with rice too 🙂
I haven’t tried chard since becoming an adult. I had a semi-traumatic chard experience as a kid and I never really recovered.
I adore chard, it’s an overlooked green! Great recipe idea.
This bowl is gorgeous! Love rainbow coloured veggies too! I totally eat with my eyes.
I love the simplicity of this recipe and how the chard totally shines. Especially with that mustard, danggg, I need to try this!
I love your action shots and I love rainbow chard! This looks amazing, pinning 🙂
Looks so delicious and fresh! I love orzo, there is a store here that sells this amazing orzo salad with spinach, bocconcini and sundried tomatoes.. I could eat a tub of it.
Leslie
http://www.alifewellconsumed.com
Love the colors this recipe offers! Sounds like the lemon & feta bring a nice tanginess to the dish – can’t wait to try it!
Rainbow Chard is certainly the Adriana Lima of the vegetable world and it makes for a pretty darn good looking salad. Asante sana for the beauty tip.
This looks and sounds delicious…and so quick too. Can’t wait to try!
Ooh, so pretty! I am guilty of sometimes tossing those stems… okay, no more! I will saute or pickle them. 🙂
This sounds delicious. I need some more rainbow chard in my life. And a huge yes to the neons at O’Hare! The best part of flying back into town. 🙂
This looks delicious!!! I love rainbow chard and I love how quickly I can cook up this bowl.
I haven’t worked much with rainbow chard, but this just looks so pretty, so I need to!