Chard

Chard is the cultivated stand-in for wild greens and it does most of the work in Greek kitchens that horta does not. Where a recipe calls for mixed greens for a pie or a stew, chard is usually the bulk of the mix, with sharper leaves like dandelion or chicory added in smaller quantities to give the bitterness a plain chard filling would lack.

The stalks and the leaves are effectively two ingredients and they cook at very different rates. Sliced stalks go into the pan several minutes before the leaves, which collapse in seconds, and a filling made by throwing the whole lot in at once ends up with tough white ribs running through wilted leaf. In a pie the stalks are often left out entirely.

Seskoula are cooked much as spinach is, simmered with rice into a loose green pilaf, folded into a hortopita, or boiled and dressed with oil and lemon as part of a plate of greens. Chard holds its texture better than spinach over a longer cook, which is why it is the safer choice for anything that spends real time in a pot.