We've been buying big bags of swiss chard and other greens at the farmer's market lately and adding them to just about everything we cook (for better or worse!). One problem we keep having in dishes with a lot of other ingredients is that the wilted greens tend to stick together in clumps instead of spreading nicely throughout the dish. How can we keep this from happening?

We've developed two strategies that have been partially successful. The first is to chop the greens into very very thin ribbons before adding them to the pot. We usually cut them in half through the stem, stack them on top of each other, and then cut them in half again before slicing them crosswise into thin strips.

Our other trick is to add them as the very last ingredient. This way, the ribbons wilt around the other ingredients as they cook instead clumping up. Because they're so fresh this time of year and because we've sliced them so thinly, they only take a few minutes to steam to perfection.

It's not quite perfect: we find that we can't stir the pot too much after the greens have cooked or they start to gravitate toward each other. But this is much better than before!

Do you have this problem with wilted greens too? What do you do?

Related: Recipe: Linguini with Mussels and Dandelion Greens

(Image: Flickr member lisa_h licensed under Creative Commons and Emma Christensen for the Kitchn)