This delicious and easy recipe of swiss chard pasta (or noodles) is a perfect quick weeknight meal and a great Swiss chard recipe.

Pasta with Swiss chard

Pasta with swiss chard

This recipe is more or less a happy accident as I had Swiss chard that needed to be used plus a package of gluten-free pasta noodles that also needed testing. I absolute love swiss chard and it is one of those ingredients that you can also easily grow in your own garden. Or so I’ve been told because my garden is totally unsuitable for growing anything. Too much moisture and too much shade. (still love my garden though) But I have heard from people that have their own vegetable garden that swiss chard is among the easiest vegetables to grow.

Even better, you cut the swiss chard stems of and they will grow again. That’s why we call it “snijbiet” here in the Netherlands. You might know it as swiss chard or rainbow chard. They’re both the same

What do you need for this swiss chard recipe?

Making the recipe is easy. It takes about 25 minutes to make so that’s an ideal time for a weeknight dinner right? I love easy pasta recipes and this is a bit of a fusion as I also added miso paste and harissa to the sauce.

Pasta with swiss chard

Other than swiss chard you need bacon, onion, garlic cloves, olive oil, tomato, red pepper flakes, miso paste, harissa and spring onion. Now if you do not have the miso or harissa you could ommit those and add a bit more of the chili flakes. Or alternatively use a bit of sriracha sauce.

Making the pasta dish I start by chopping all the vegetables so they’re ready to go. You take a large skillet and you place it on medium-high heat. At the same time place large pan on the stove so you have boiling water when it’s time to cook the pasta.

Cleaning the stalks

For cleaning the chard I always make sure I have a pile of the stalks and a pile of the chard leaves. The leaves need less time to cook so I always separate the two so I can cook the stalks for a bit longer. Now you will notice that the stalks run in a V-shape almost all the way to the top of the chard leaves. So you can cut the leaves off around it or just go to the edge of the leaves. It doesn’t make a huge difference if you have a little more crunch in some of the stalks. It will be tasty anyway,

Cooking the pasta with Swiss chard

Now start by adding the bacon to the pan with a little olive oil and baking that until brown and crispy. Remove from the pan and let it drain on a paper towel. Now add the onion, garlic and the stalks of the swiss chard to the pan and sauté for about 10 minutes on low to medium heat. Add the chili flakes and salt and pepper to taste. Add the chard leaves and let it simmer until it is all cooked.

Pasta with Swiss chard

Now add the tomato cubes, miso paste and the harissa and let it cook on low until the tomato sauce thickens a little bit. Add the bacon in right before serving.

In the meantime you cook the pasta according to package directions al dente. Make sure you add a good pinch of salt to the cooking water. Save a little bit of the pasta water to add later to the pan. The reserved pasta water will give the sauce a creamy consistency.

Serve the swiss chard with the sauce and optionally add some parmesan cheese or fresh herbs such as basil or parsley.

Variations and additions

Now due to the use of bacon this is obviously not a vegetarian version but you can easily make this into a vegetarian pasta. In that case you leave out the bacon and make it vegan by adding nutritional yeast instead of parmesan. Nutritional yeast has a cheeselike flavor. Don’t think it comes close to the real deal but it has a light cheesy taste so will be perfect if you don’t want to eat cheese.

You can use any kind of pasta you like. I like a spaghetti type of pasta but use your favorite pasta! 

As already mentioned you can change the use of the miso and harissa to any other hot sauce or leave out completely. Since this is a pretty versatile recipe I also find it quite nice with regular noodles instead of pasta. That works quite well too. In that case you might want to leave out the parmesan. Check the full recipe in the recipe card!

If you love Swiss chard you might want to try these two recipes too:

Pasta with Swiss chard

Pasta with Swiss chards

5 from 1 vote
GangMain
KeukenDutch

This delicious and easy pasta dish with Swiss chard is the perfect weeknight meal
Prep time 10 minutes
Cooking time 15 minutes
Total time 25 minutes

2 people

Ingredients

  • 125 gr pasta or noodles
  • 100 gr bacon in cubes
  • 1 large onion chopped finely
  • 1 clove garlic chopped
  • 1 tbsp olive oil for baking
  • 400 gr tomato cubes 1 tin
  • 1 tsp chili flakes
  • 1/2 tbsp miso paste
  • 1 tsp harissa
  • 500 gr swiss chard
  • 1 spring onion sliced
  • pepper
  • salt

  • Start by cleaning the swiss chard. Cut the stalks from the leaves in a v-shape (along the side of the stalks) and slice the stalks
  • Roll the leaves together tightly and cut into slices as well and than down the middle.
  • Take a large wok and heat the olive oil
  • Add the bacon cubes and fry until browned and crispy. Remove from the pan and keep aside. Add onion, garlic and the stalks and bake for about 10 minutes on low to medium heat. Add 1 tsp chili flakes and pepper and salt to taste.
  • In a saucepan you place the tomato cubes with the miso paste and the harissa and cook this until the tomato sauce thickens slightly. Add pepper and salt to taste
  • Cook the noodles according to package instruction.
  • Mix the noodles with the sauce and serve immediately

Nutrition Information per portion

Calories: 661kcal | Carbohydrates: 81g | Protein: 24g | Fat: 29g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 14g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 33mg | Sodium: 1344mg | Potassium: 1942mg | Fiber: 12g | Sugar: 17g | Vitamin A: 16117IU | Vitamin C: 101mg | Calcium: 242mg | Iron: 9mg

Disclaimer

The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.

Did you make this recipe?Mention @insimoneskitchen_ or tag #insimoneskitchen!

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Simone van den Berg

Food- and travel blogger from the Netherlands. Loves good food. Loves to taste good food the world over. She also loves to share travelstories, delicious recipes and ok, cat pictures too. She sometimes feels the need to get really healthy for a while, always mingled with periods of insanely delicious sweets and other decadent treats. Lives in the Netherlands with her two cats; Humphrey and Buffy. Profession: Food photographer, food blogger, recipe developer and nutritionist