Stuffed Swiss Chard in Avgolemono Sauce

If you love yiaprakia (stuffed grape leaves), you’re going to love this recipe for Stuffed Swiss Chard in Avgolemono Sauce (egg-lemon sauce). The process for both recipes is quite similar, and you’ll find that the swiss chard leaves are larger and much easier to stuff than the smaller size grape leaves. For this recipe, the leaves are stuffed with a lamb and rice mixture and topped with a tangy, creamy avgolemono sauce! The rich avgolemono sauce becomes the perfect partner to the flavorful swiss chard rolls. Serve these tender stuffed rolls as the main entree at your next meal and prepare to be wowed!

Preparing the Swiss Chard Leaves

You will need two bunches of swiss chard leaves (about 15-16 leaves). Make sure to choose the largest leaves from each bunch. First, thoroughly rinse off any dirt from the leaves and pat dry. Lay one leaf at a time on a flat surface and fold it in half lengthwise. With a sharp knife cut along the edge of the stem rib to remove it. Remember to only cut up to the point where the rib is large, you do not have to cut the whole rib out. You’ll want the leaf to remain whole so you are able to stuff it with the meat mixture and roll it up. Repeat with all remaining leaves.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Blanch the leaves, one at a time until tender and bright green. This only takes about 5 seconds, at this point you are not cooking the leaves, just making them tender and pliable for easy wrapping.  Lay each leaf on a baking sheet lined with paper towels to absorb the excess water.

Let’s Make the Filling

Ingredients

• Ground lamb
• Garlic – minced
• Onion – chopped
• Rice
• Fresh lemon juice
• Dill
• Salt & pepper

Add all filling ingredients to a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Don’t you just love a recipe that combines most of the ingredients in one easy step?  After mixing it’s time to move on to filling and rolling the swiss chard leaves.

Stuffing The Leaves

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Lay a blanched swiss chard leaf, vein side up, on a flat surface with the cut stem side facing away from you. Place a heaping tablespoon full of meat mixture at the bottom of the leaf. Fold the bottom of the leaf over the mixture. Begin rolling and folding in sides as you go.  If you are familiar with rolling a cabbage roll or burrito, it’s the same principle. Basically, you are making a package by rolling and tucking in the sides. Don’t worry if each roll looks different from the previous one.

Once they’re all cooked, they will all taste equally delicious!  Place the roll in a large baking dish or pan and repeat with the remaining leaves. Add the chicken broth, olive oil and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to the pan, cover with the lid and place over medium heat until broth comes to a slow boil. Reduce the heat to simmer and cook the swiss chard rolls for 40-45 minutes.

Making the Avgolemono Sauce

• Eggs
• Lemon juice
• Chicken Broth

Avgolemono is a classic sauce used in many Greek dishes. It’s a light sauce and very easy to whip up! The tricky part of making the sauce is to be sure to temper the eggs. You do not want the eggs to cook in the sauce and become curdled! Using a blender helps create a creamy and silky consistency of the sauce. First, separate the egg yolks from the egg whites in 2 small bowls and allow them to come to room temperature (very important). Juice the lemons into another small bowl. We used 2 lemons, but feel free to add extra, depending on how much you love lemons! Whisk the egg whites and add them to a blender and blend until foamy and thick. Add the yolks and lemon to the blender and blend again.

Remove 2-3 ladles (about one cup) of broth from the pan you cooked the swiss chard rolls in. Keeping the blender on, ladle in the warm chicken broth slowly and carefully, a little at a time to temper the eggs. When done, slowly pour the avgolemono sauce over the cooked swiss chard rolls. You are now ready to serve this tasty dish with some crusty bread to soak up all the wonderful juices. We made some of Mia Kouppa’s Greek Olive and Oregano Bread. Check out their bread recipe, it’s easy and tastes amazing. The bread was the perfect accompaniment to our Stuffed Swiss Chard Rolls with Avgolemono. Kali Orexi!

More “Stuffed” REcipes

• Yaprakia (Stuffed Grape Leaves)
• Baked Stuffed Onions
• Spanakopita Stuffed Zucchini Roll-Ups
• Vegetarian Stuffed Grape Leaves
• Spanakopita Stuffed Peppers

If you make this recipe for Stuffed Swiss Chard in Avgolemono Sauce, we’d love to hear from you! Leave us a comment below. If you’re social share a photo on Facebook and Instagram by tagging #hearthealthygreek.