Nutrition

Both types of chard are a great source of Vitamin A and C as well as antioxidants like beta-carotene and lutein so similar to carrots eating them will support healthy eyes.

Shopping Guide

When shopping for chard, look out for crisp leaves and firm stalks.

Storage

Keep your chard in the fridge for up to 3 or 4 days.

Preparation

The deep flavours of the chard works well in stews, curries and casseroles or mix-up traditional sides like broccoli when sautéed in olive oil or butter and a bit of salt and pepper. Use it in place of spinach in most dishes – it’s great with sweeter flavours like cream, bacon, or cooked garlic and ginger.

Kids in the Kitchen

For a younger child, why not get them to wash the chard by separating out the leaves and giving them a good wash and dry. If they want to do more, can they help pull the leaves off the stems and tear into small pieces?

For an older child, it could be a great opportunity to practise some essential knife skills using the claw grip to roughly chop the leaves.

Find more ideas for involving kids in the kitchen here.

Sensory

Try exploring chard leaves of varying colours using regular white-stemmed chard and/or rainbow chard. What does it look like? How does it feel? What colours can you see? Does it remind you of anything? Does it have a smell? Try biting through the leaves and stems separately, or snapping them by your ear if not up to trying them, and see if the leaves or stems sound crunchier.

Find more sensory ideas, tips and videos here. If you get stuck and need a little help with describing words, we have a selection for you here, too!

Serving

Next time you make a meal that includes chard, why not ask your child to help you with one small step in the preparation of the chard (maybe stripping the leaves from the stems or washing it), then see if they want to help you serve it as “their” meal. Perhaps they could help lay the table and even create a fun centrepiece, maybe with all green objects to reflect the chard’s colour?

Find the best ways of involving your own child and their skills and interests on our Roles for Kids page.

Activities

For chard, why not try making an edible sea scene on a plate or tray using chard for seaweed and other veggies for fish, crabs, sand or waves? Or try drawing a close up chard leaf by observing it under a magnifying glass to get the veins, lines and leaves just right!

Kids more into science? You can find at-home science fun with veg with our videos from Stefan Gates’ here. Maybe try the “exploring colours and shapes” experiment with chard?

Find loads more free veg-themed crafts here and games here.