I love fresh spinach. Especially spinach salad. But as much as I love spinach, I can’t stand that weird feeling you get on your teeth after you eat spinach. You know what I mean, right? The feeling that makes you want to stuff an entire piece of bread in your mouth afterwards to ‘scrub’ that soft, icky feeling on your teeth away. And if the spinach is raw, it somehow seems to be even worse.
I realized that one of the reasons I like spinach salad is because of the crunchy, thick texture of the leaves. It’s just a more ‘meaty’ , substantial leaf than regular salad. And able to stand up to things like cheese and nuts, without getting overwhelmed.
Lately I’ve been getting around that weird mouthfeel – but still getting the texture and the leafy green taste of spinach – by substituting Swiss chard. I’m not sure why, but I have never come across a recipe for Swiss chard salad.
You can basically take any recipe you have for spinach salad, and substitute Swiss chard. If the stems are too large or tough, just trim them off. The leaves are almost always tender, even if they are on the big side.
Last week for lunch I tossed together this salad of Swiss chard, herbed cheese, beets and almonds. One of the things that made it so good was the cheese I used, a piece of Conciata di San Vittore. Made from sheeps’s milk, the cheese is aged in a mixture of 15 wild herbs and is incredibly fragrant and rich, but just crumbly enough to work in a salad.
The other thing that made it so good? I didn’t have that icky spinach feeling in my mouth afterwards. 
swiss chard, beet and pecorino salad
It’s hard to give precise amounts for a salad this simple. Here follow very imprecise quantities.
4 cups of washed and trimmed Swiss chard leaves
2 medium sized beets, roasted and cubed (see this post for how to roast)
1/4 – 1/2 cup crumbled Conciata di San Vittore, fresh pecorino or goat cheese*
1/4 cup chopped, roasted almonds
Dressing:
Mix together:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon good quality balsamic vinegar
1 tsp pomegranate molasses
Place all the ingredients in a large bowl, and toss with dressing. Add salt and pepper to taste.
*I’ve written about Conciata di San Vittore before, and you can get it at D.O.L, out on the Tuscolana, but there is also a vendor selling it these days in the Farmers Market near Circo Massimo (Saturdays and Sundays). But if you can’t find it, any herbed fresh cheese will do. 
The bowl used in this post is from Sberna, in Deruta.
I never have spinach salad. Don’t like that feeling either. Of course I love beets. Will definitely make this.
Divine!
Hello Elizabeth, thanks so much for this original salad secret. As always, your recipes are so extremely down to earth and innovative. You explain everything so well and most of the ingredients are usually available even outside of Rome, such as in New York City at places like Eataly, Dean and Deluca, Citeralla, etc.
Yesterday I tried to see what recipe of Michael Chiarello’s cookbook entitled Bottega: Bold Italian Flavors from the Heart of California’s Wine Country I could execute, and one recipe seemed to refer to another recipe that referred to yet another recipe so I decided to postpone it (i.e. gave up)!
I happen to have baby spinach and virtually everything else in the kitchen and will try “this” salad today. But I’m going to look for Swiss chard at Eataly later. Cheers!
What a great idea for a salad. it looks wonderful. The answer to “spinach teeth”” is oxalic acid. The crystals coat your teeth. It is also present in bananas. Food nerd talk…
Love spinach salad but will try this too. This salad looks scrumptious.
My Aunt would take the Swiss Chard and cut it into small pieces…Place in a bowl…top it off with a wee bit of vinegar,veg or olive oil and then top it off with sprinkled sugar…cover and place in refrigerator……a few hours and then it is ready….recipe came from,POLAND and GERMANY….The amount of Vinegar and oil? No idea but use your own imagination…..just enough to cover the Swiss Chard….THEN sprinkle with sugar. Taste? OMG………fantastic.
Nothing like a great spinach salad, especially at this time of the year! News flash…just got my hubby to eat & enjoy a spinach, roasted golden beet and cara cara orange salad with goat cheese…he hates beets! On a visit to Pigneto a couple of years ago we had an absolutely divine local goats cheese at Primo al Pignetto…worth a re-visit just for that cheese along (even though the food was great.)