By
Diego Cortés
Chard pancakes are one of those home recipes that solve dinner without anyone asking about the greens: 400 grams of chard blended into the batter, twelve thin green discs and a cheese filling baked until golden. It is the savoury version of the Sunday pancake: the same thin round, no sugar, with green leaves and tomato.
The idea comes from home cooking in the Southern Cone, where chard is one of the cheapest vegetables at the market and a stuffed pancake is a weeknight dish: you make it once, it yields twelve and keeps for two days in the fridge. Serve it as a light dinner with salad, or as the calmest way to get children to eat greens.
If you like chard other ways, chard fritters are the fried bite of the same vegetable and the chard tortilla is the thick version. For the base technique, American pancakes explain the right consistency.
Prep
25 min
Cook
30 min
Servings
4
Calories
590 kcal
Wash the chard leaf by leaf, cut away the stems and strings and set the leaves aside in two or three batches; the stems do not go into the batter, but they are good in a salad or a stir-fry.
Boil water with a handful of salt, dip the leaves for 2 minutes, lift them out with a slotted spoon and plunge them for 1 minute into a bowl of iced water so they keep their colour.
Drain the chard in a colander and press it with your hands (or a clean cloth) until not a drop comes out: if it stays wet, the batter turns runny and the pancakes tear.
Blend the milk, eggs and chard for 30 to 40 seconds, until no green strings or leaf pieces are left.
Sift the flour into a large bowl and mix in the salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Pour the blended mixture over the dry ingredients and whisk until combined; if lumps remain, give the batter 10 seconds in the blender.
Let the batter rest for 20 to 30 minutes at room temperature: the flour hydrates and the pancakes flip without breaking.
Heat a 24 cm non-stick pan over medium heat, brush it with very little oil and pour in about 60 ml of batter, swirling the pan to cover the base.
Cook for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes per side, until the edges come away on their own and the surface is golden; stack the pancakes with kitchen paper between them and repeat until the batter is gone (about 12).
Warm the tomato sauce and stir in the grated cheese off the heat so it does not catch; check the salt.
Spoon two tablespoons of filling onto the centre of each pancake, roll it up and place it in the dish greased with butter and a little sauce on the bottom.
Cover with the rest of the sauce and the parmesan and bake for 12 to 15 minutes at 180 °C, until the sauce bubbles and the top is golden; serve hot, two or three per person.
This recipe has a easy difficulty level, which means it's accessible for cooks of all levels.
The preparation time is 25 minutes and the cooking time is 30 minutes.
This recipe is designed for 4 servings.
Yes, many ingredients can be substituted with similar alternatives. We recommend checking the recipe variations.
Store the preparation in the refrigerator for up to 3 days in an airtight container. Some preparations can be frozen for up to 3 months.
