What You Need to Know About Eating Greens

One of the most mentioned foods for having a well-balanced diet is darky, leafy greens. Greens have a bounty of vitamins and minerals, as well as fiber, that gives them a seemingly magical amount of health benefits. Unfortunately, many people assume they don’t enjoy the taste because of bad experiences in the past.

However, the days of cooking collards down to slop or choking down that canned spinach Popeye pushed on us are long gone. Nowadays, cooks utilize tons of types of greens, each with a unique flavor profile and different culinary strengths. And, starting with fresh, crisp leaves is a big part of it.

Modern chefs have learned to accentuate the crunch of greens, and we don’t just find them as a forgettable side dish. Instead, we have collards as wraps, kale as chips, arugula on pizza, and spinach in pasta. And that’s barely touching on the options available. Forget healthy, eating greens has become a tasty thing to do.

What Are Greens?

Source: Dr. Ann Wellness/Youtube

Many greens, particularly the ones we think of in this list, come from the brassica family. That’s where we get powerhouses like kales, collards, and cabbages. It’s also got a fleet of spicier members like arugula, mustard, and watercress. Bok choy, broccoli rabe, and turnip greens all come from this family as well.

Then, we have the beetroot family, which includes beet greens and chard. These are actually different cultivars of the same species, Beta vulgaris, but chard doesn’t have an edible root like beets do. This is also where we get spinach and a lesser-known green called Good King Henry, not to mention quinoa, which also has edible greens that can be used like spinach.

We also have a host of other leafy greens to enjoy. Any number of lettuces, particularly the darker hues, make the list. Other crops grown for greens include sorrel, endive, dandelions, and escarole.

Then, we have a host of smaller greens that can be tossed into stuff. Microgreens are basically young leaves of the plants listed above. Rather than reaching maturity, they are cut once the leaves are somewhere between one and three inches, depending on the vegetable. Culinary herbs—mint, basil, oregano, parsley, cilantro, etc.—can also be included in the mix.

Staying Raw with Your Greens

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Lots of people like to consume their greens raw to ensure that they haven’t lost some of their potent nutritional value. This can be done in several ways, with some greens being ideal for certain preparations.

• Salad is the classic method for consuming raw greens. Lettuces, endive, arugula, micro greens, and watercress are great choices for this. For some of the tougher greens, such as kale, chard, and cabbage, people like to “massage” the salad to soften it.
• Green juice has become a popular method as well. Kale and chard are very popular for making green juice, which is often blended with celery and fruits.
• Leaf wraps have developed as an alternative for those avoiding gluten. Instead of using bread or flour tortillas, sandwich goodies can be wrapped in big leaves like collards or mustard greens.
• Green sauces are a lot of fun for putting on pasta, roasted potatoes, and even bread. This is basically blending up greens with some flavor enhancers like olive oil, vinegar, and garlic. Pesto (using basil) is a classic. Chimichurri uses parsley. Sometimes just tossing a bunch of greens and spices in a food processor and going for can make a nice sauce.
• Chop up fresh leafy herbs and sprinkle them over dishes raw rather than cooking them. The flavor will shine brighter and the nutrients will be richer.

Cooking Them Greens Up Right

Source: So Freakin’ Vegan/Youtube

Truthfully, some people/studies claim that some greens have anti-nutrients (and some say the opposite) when they are eaten raw. For example, spinach has phytate, which inhibits the absorption of minerals. Broccoli, too. To the point, sometimes cooking those greens is a good thing to do.

• Sautéing is one of the more agreeable ways to cook spinach and other stout greens, such as mustard greens, collards, and kales. Chop them up a bit beforehand, put them over medium heat with a bit of oil, and add a little seasoning, perhaps some lemon.
• Blanching is commonly used to deal with greens that might be on the bitter side. This is simply bringing water to a boil, putting the leaves in, then pulling them out before they get mushy. It should only take about 3 minutes, and they can be put directly into ice water to stop the cooking process.
• Soups and stews get a nice kick when greens are added. They can be cooked down into the soup early on. Better yet, they can be tossed in just before the pot comes off the fire, so the greens will soften but not lose their oomph.
• “Chips” have become a popular way of snacking on greens. Basically, a sturdy green—usually kale—gets cooked in the oven at a really low temperature (250 F) for a long time (90 minutes-plus) until crispy. These can also be done in a dehydrator.
• Greens can also be baked into delicious pies, calzones, and casseroles or chopped and stuffed into pasta, peppers, mushrooms, and so on.

In short, it’s hard to go wrong with greens in your diet, and they are super versatile, much more so than many people realize. The other great thing about them is that most are amongst the easiest vegetables for the home gardener to produce at home, and they thrive in the cooler seasons when not much else is growing.

Related Content:

• A Guide to Dehydrating Your Summertime Herbs and Greens
• How to Grow and Use Microgreens
• Spring Salad: Edible Flowers and Dandelion Greens
• Endive, Mustard Greens, Radicchio and More! 10 Recipes Made with Lesser-Known Greens

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