Creamy Swiss Chard Pasta With Leeks, Tarragon and Lemon Zest Recipe (2024)

Just so happened to have chard and leeks on hand so I gave this a shot tonight. What a perfect midwinter pasta. Winter ingredients but the tarragon and lemon taste like spring. All I heard the whole meal was “Mmmmm”. Full disclosure, no fresh tarragon available so I added dried at the same time as adding the thyme to the chard. I added anchovy paste to the butter like the notes suggested while toasting the breadcrumbs. What a great surprise weeknight pasta. Definitely a keeper.

This looks good but my favorite chard and pasta dish is my Mom's. Saute chard (start the finely chopped stems before the sliced leaves) in olive oil. Add some crushed garlic and a bit of red pepper flakes towards the end. Toss with pasta and more garlic oil (sliced garlic warming at a low temp in olive oil until starting to brown, then removed). Top with parmesan. Some fine lemon zest would also be a nice addition.

Adapted this recipe to make it non-dairy by subbing the heavy cream for coconut cream (we didn't taste the coconut-ness in the final dish), butter. for coconut oil, and omitting the parmasan. Very tasty! Fresh tarragon and lemon was a huge plus; don't skip it.

Lovely, delicious flavors, but I should have trusted my gut when I saw 2 cups of stock and 1 cup of cream. This was more like a soup, even though I boiled the bajammers out of the liquid. Had to put in twice the amount of parmesan to thicken it. As the pasta sat, it thickened on its own, but that was two hours later. I'll make this again, but next time will use 2 cups cream, 1 cup stock. Or better yet, go vegan and use all cashew cream with a little bit of stock. Olive oil instead of butter.

Delightful. Followed precisely, making sure to very carefully undercook my pasta even by a minute or so pre-"al dente" (so 2 full minutes under package instructions) since it was going to spend some time in very hot sauce. It's very important to let this stand for at least 5 minutes before giving it another stir and then plating it, otherwise the sauce will be very loose. It tightened up, just needed to cool a bit. The breadcrumbs with the yeast are essential, don't skimp on them.

This was really delicious. Stuck to the recipe except half and half in place of cream, added a bit more garlic, and used whole wheat spaghetti to make it a bit healthier (TJs has the absolute best ww spaghetti). So incredibly satisfying and flavorful. Next time I would double the chard, but that is the ONLY change I would make.

Instead of nutritional yeast, add finely chopped anchovy or anchovy paste to butter while melting for panic.

Truly delicious, balanced, and fulfilling in every way. I will be making this pasta for a long time.

This was delicious the day after. The flavors were more pronounced, although I still think there was too much pasta for the amount of sauce recommended. I suggest reducing the amount of pasta by 25 - 40%.

Could you do this with nonfat yogurt and olive oil?

Wow! Rich, decadent and delicious! This dish was amazing and easy to make without dairy/vegan. I made a cashew cream for the heavy cream, used Miyoko's Creamery vegan butter and Follow Your Heart parmesan shreds. I had leeks and Swiss chard from my farm box and Texas tarragon from my garden. Soooo good. My family licked the bowl clean ;)

Extremely tasty! Now one of my favourite pasta dishes. I’d probably add more chard next time to freshen it up more. So good!

So, I amend my note of half hour ago... hubby loved this, and is on his second helping. The sauce thickened up while sitting a bit. Still not very pretty, but sometimes the yummiest food isn’t.

I do wish recipe writers would give grated parm amounts in ounces (or grams). Volume of grated Parmesan is so variable.

Excellent! 1 1/2 Cups broth is enough and half cup of cream too.

Less cream, more chicken stock

Delicious. I could not fit everything in my skillet, though. (I think it’s a 10” skillet, and my leeks were quite hefty.) I wound up having to transfer everything to a Dutch oven partway through, which was a bit stressful—and made even more dishes, but still, worth it in the end. I would make this again. It’s a lovely dish for early spring.

Made as directed with half and half and anchovy breadcrumbs. We loved this and found it to be company worthy ! but it was oddly labor intensive (to a very seasoned cook) and I struggled with cheese clumping up the chard and leeks. I also would like to reduce some of the fat by moving to oat milk with a roux and might add the solids to the pasta while I deal with reducing the oatmilk and melting parm to pour over and mix in the end. Tarragon, lemon zest and breadcrumbs elevate it.

Love everything about this dish except tarragon which I hate with a passion so I topped with basil and Italian parsley for that burst of freshness.Really enjoyed the end result and will make again. Might add sauteed fennel next time along with the leek

sub white beans, partially mashed, for heavy cream

I can veganize this with plant heavy cream and other vegan substitutions.

1584 grams of sodium is the new daily allotment. Even under the old allowance this is more than half of the recommended health allowance. Definitely a "killer" dish in every respect.

Wondering what source(s) are of the 41 grams of protein listed in the Nutritional info.

Can’t eat leeks or dairy so I made it without the leeks, Parmesan or cream. Used one cup veggie broth and one cup oat milk. Mixed 1 tbs white rice flour with 1/3 cup of the oat milk to thicken and added in the last couple of minutes of boiling. Used fresh dill instead of tarragon because that what I had. Used 1 tsp of dried thyme and gluten free bread crumbs. Used gluten free capellini. I thought it was delicious!

I had spinach to use up, so I subbed it for the chard. I love tarragon, so I chopped up the whole package and stirred it in at the end. The lemon is divine as are the crunchy bread crumbs.

Oops! I used rainbow chard and the red stems turned the sauce Pink!! ( my husband ate it anyway ;)

Cooked this as directed except for the cream. It was labor intensive but EXCELLENT. Will definitely make again!

Leeks and chard are in season on the Central Coast of California so I had these on hand from my CSA box. This was tasty, relatively easy, and fast—so good for a weeknight. I added pine nuts to the panko sauté since they are good with chard, which I recommend doing. I used half and half because I had no heavy cream, but of course this led to a thinner, less rich sauce.

I ended up making a variation of this and it’s terrific. Added two chopped portobello mushrooms. Omitted nutritional yeast. Cooked in olive oil and butter. Used orecchiete pasta cooked so dente. Inverted the sauced pasta into an oven proof dish, topped with grated Swiss/Gruyere/Parmesan and the toasted Panki. Broiled for 3 minutes just to toast and melt. It’s wonderful!

A lot of work; needs to simmer for along time when you add the pasta. Salt extremely heavily and 2-3 lemons