You may recall my long (2 sentence) rant on why I think everyone should join a CSA if possible in my roasted beets/carrot recipe, and here is another post coming at you with that same energy: how to cook with vegetable greens.
Up until last year, I would compost/throw away the “extra” greens that came with my vegetables. To be fair, a lot of vegetables that you get from a grocery store don’t always have the greens attached to them still.
However, if you have the greens that come from most root vegetable, you can eat them. Obviously, google to make sure they are edible/taste good if they are not the greens I am referring to specifically.
The greens I will be talking about are: turnip greens, carrot tops, beet greens, and radish greens.
Cooking greens
To cook these greens, I wash them throughly to start. The farm we have our CSA with is organic, but I want to try to minimize all of the dirt/bugs I ingest (call me crazy if you must).
Honestly, I don’t do anything that crazy with any of these greens, besides chop them up and sauté them like I would spinach. Oil, salt, pepper, and any extra seasoning. My overall goal is to fully cook the stem so that the cooked stem consistency matches the cooked leaf consistency.
Dishes with greens
Our CSA loves to grow hakurei turnips and the greens that come with them are honestly my favorite of the greens. They don’t have too distinct of a flavor, and they taste phenomenal just sautéed in oil/butter with salt and pepper. We have them as just a side with our meals and they taste so good.
The other greens are all good, but have more of a distinct taste and I prefer to cook them into other dishes to add depth and nutrients, rather than to have them be stand alone. But honestly, I recommend trying it out yourself and seeing what you like, just don’t blame me!!! I am sensitive!!
Some of my favorite dishes to add these greens into: ramen, any Asian-inspired stir-fry/noodle dish, pastas, curries, etc. You would be surprised by how many dishes you can add greens into without noticing them.
Why eat the greens?
Why not?
If you are already getting the greens with these vegetables, you are wasting a great source of food when you aren’t using them.
Also, this world is only getting more and more expensive and there is a great chance that there will be food insecurities for a lot of people. These greens are a great way to feed your family good nutrients for basically free (assuming you are already getting the vegetable).
At the bare minimum, if you have a compost, add them into there instead of the trash! This at least adds the nutrients into your garden.
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