Swiss Chard Tart with Goat Cheese and a Pine Nut, Currant and Parsley Relish


I’ve been spending plenty of time in the garden over the past week. What a joy! Last year, with our move to Miami and all the planning and packing it involved, my poor garden got very little attention. I would stand on the deck and be dismayed to see all the weeds, all of the plants that needed to be trimmed or moved, all of the small signs of neglect.

This year will be different. It is different already. There is nothing more beautiful than a spring garden, so full of hope and promise and so I am inspired.  I have spent more hours in the garden this last couple of weeks than I did in the entire season last year. And I am making some changes.

I am moving around a bunch of the perennials and creating a West Coast shade garden in the front yard. There are now hostas, foxglove, maidenhair ferns, lily of the valley, columbine, wild ginger, bleeding hearts and Calla lilies where there was once just a patch of grass.

I am reworking the herb garden, moving the fraise de bois strawberries, and readying the soil for my vegetable plot. This year there will be kale and leeks, onions and red leaf lettuce, arugula and mustard greens. There will be plenty of Swiss chard. There will be green chard and red chard and rainbow chard too. I love how chard always seems to thrive in my garden and doesn’t seem to mind our cooler, wetter climate in Vancouver. I even have a few bunches that happily overwintered and are still thriving in the front yard.

Since today is a rainy day there will be no time spent in the garden. I am happy to leave my gloves and trowel and weeding bucket beneath the stairs and spend some time puttering around in the kitchen instead. I harvested some of the chard before it started to really rain this morning and have some puff pastry defrosting in the fridge. I am planning to sauté the chard and the shallots and mix up the ricotta and egg base and then assemble the tart right after lunch. Topped with some fresh goat cheese it will happily sit in the fridge until dinner time when it will be popped into the oven and scent the house with earthy greens and the buttery pastry. Topped with the currant, pine nut and parsley relish it will be cut into slabs and served on the cutting board for everyone to help themselves.

A simple and perfect dinner for a cool and rainy evening. Much like the garden in early May this little tart is quintessentially spring.

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2 Responses to Swiss Chard Tart with Goat Cheese and a Pine Nut, Currant and Parsley Relish

  1. sherylmcdougald says:

    Mmmmm – that is what I can do with my re-growing spring chard. Kale and chard are completely un-killable in my winter garden which is great because I love them both! And now you have reminded me to go out and plant more….xo

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