Swiss Chard and Potatoes - Croatian Blitva Recipe • All that's Jas (2024)

BY: Jas · PUBLISHED: Aug 25, 2017 · UPDATED: Jan 26, 2023 · This post may contain affiliate links.

Ready for another super easy side dish that your whole family will love? This beautiful Swisschard (blitva) and potatoes dish is found on almost every menu along the Croatian coastline and islands of the Adriatic Sea.

The locals love and serve this side with simple fish, garlicky grilled or pan-fried, but it's great with any meat. It is also super delicious with fried eggs for a hearty vegetarian meal. Best of all, it comes together quickly with just a few ingredients.

What is Swiss chard?

Chard, Swiss chard, or rainbow chard is an annual leafy vegetable that you can cook or eat raw as a delicious base for a salad. Did you know Swiss chard sometimes behaves like a perennial, living for several years?

It also grows all season long. Compared with spinach, chard will give you almost double the vitamin E.

If you don't have access to fresh Swiss chard, spinach is an excellent substitute both in cooking and fresh in salads. You can also use kale.

Although I enjoy chard raw or stuffed, my favorite way to prepare it is Croatian style - sautéed in olive oil with potatoes and garlic.

It's a super simple preparation, like most Croatian food, that showcases a few ingredients but so flavorful and good for you.

For me, the hardest part of making this blitva recipe is crossing the 20 yards to my garden and then washing the leafy greens. If only I had someone to do that part for me, I'd cook it every day. Call me lazy, I don't care.

If you're lazy too or don't have a garden, pick up a bunch or two of chard at the store. I trust you have potatoes and garlic in your pantry already. Don't you?

And if that's too much work, sit on a plane and head over to the Croatian coast. It is beautiful this time of year and there is absolutely no better place to enjoy your food than at the front of the crystal clear turquoise sea.

While you eat Swiss chard and potatoes, admire the sailboats in the distance and appreciate the breeze that brings the smell of lavender bushes, pine trees, and garlicky grilled fish.

Seriously, if you've never been to Croatia put it on your bucket list now. Make this yummy Mediterranean dish as a start. You'll love it.

How to make it?

You'll need chard, potatoes, garlic, and olive oil and you'll have a delicious side or a main vegetarian dish in no time.

1. Peel and cut potatoes into chunks. Boil in salted water until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, cut chard into strips, and shortly boil in salted water, until the greens have just wilted. Drain and set aside.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat.
4. Add minced garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
5. Add the potatoes and chard and toss to combine.
6. Season blitva with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Recipe Tips:

• Substitute chard with spinach.
• Another variation is to cook a chopped tomato with garlic before adding chard and potatoes.
• Instead of boiling the greens, saute in oil until wilted.

What to serve with blitva?

Swiss chard with potatoes is an excellent side to seafood but also any meats. The dish is naturally vegan and you'll love it with your choice of vegan protein. If you're vegetarian, serve it alongside fried eggs (my favorite way and I'm a carnivore!). I've also served it with:

• Best Crusted Salmon Recipe
• Cheesy Mushroom Pork Chops
• Georgian Crispy Chicken Tabaka

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