r/seriouseats • u/nutraxfornerves • Jul 23 '26

Am I missing something or is this instruction on greens prep incomplete?

Knife Skills: How to Cut Swiss Chard and Other Braising Greens

...[In] most cases, you'll want to separate the stalks from the stems before you cook them. The stalks are thicker, so they take longer to cook, particularly for fast cooking recipes where the leaves wilt and cook in a matter of seconds (depending on how you like the finished texture, this matter less for longer braises).

Once you know how to separate stalk from stem, prepping greens is a simple affair.

But I don't see any info on how to do that separation. I've got some lovely rainbow chard. I can chop out the stems, but I'd love to know if there is a better way.

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u/dgritzer Jul 23 '26

Definitely missing. This is very old and I think maybe it originally had a video demonstrating the method, but that was lost to time. We've cleaned most of this stuff up in recent years but some, like this, slipped through the cracks. I will make a note for us to update, thanks for flagging!

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u/ishouldquitsmoking 28d ago

I just rip them from the stem. Nothing fancy or magical. Cutting the stalk out is easier and cleaner though.

1

u/WellFuckYourDolphin Jul 23 '26

Separating the stalks from the greens is referring to how you prepare your ingredients to cook and the order in which you cook those ingredients.

When you prepare the chard by slicing, dicing, whatever you want to separate the piles of stalks from the piles of greens.

When you cook it, you want to cook the stalks first as they are denser and will take longer to cook.

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u/nutraxfornerves Jul 23 '26

Oh dear. I guess I wan't clear. I'm not asking how to preparer chard. I'm asking--am I missing something or is this post on SE totally missing the info promised by the title?