Green and Leafy Vegetables

These veggies are the sort of generously "fibered" and (for the most part) low-carb foods that tend to both fill you up and help moderate your blood-sugar levels. So, besides giving you great nutrients, they can also help you slim down.

• Amaranth: with "roots" in the Americas, this plant yields both greens and grain. The greens, also known as Chinese spinach, are sometimes steamed or boiled and then mashed and mixed with various seasonings. Please note that, like spinach, amaranth contains a fair amount of oxalic acid.

• Artichoke: a member of the sunflower family, the mature (globe) artichoke evolves from a spectacular thistle-like blossom into its somewhat forbidding veggie form. Although it requires some prep time, the artichoke's fabulous taste and its nutritional value more than repay the effort.

• Arugula: mainly a salad green and also sometimes known as rocket; considered by some to be rather bitter.

• Asparagus: the spears of this plant are a great source of folic acid, potassium, fiber, vitamin B6, thiamine, and vitamins A and C. To preserve its delicate taste and texture, please do not overcook this veggie—two minutes, max (IMHO). Then toss with a little olive oil or butter, parmesan cheese, and perhaps a touch of lemon juice or zest. 

• Beet greens: the leafy tops of the beet root. These make a very tasty veggie dish, lacking the bitterness of certain other greens. To avoid the joys of crunching grit, be sure to soak and rinse the greens a couple of times before cooking.

• Bitterleaf: apparently widely eaten in Africa, where it is used as a vegetable and also as a remedy for, among other things, upset stomach and skin infections. A soup made with dried bitter leaf is said to be quite popular in Nigeria.

• Bok choy: a Chinese vegetable you may be eating already in the occasional stir fry.  Raw bok choy also makes a great salad. Also known as pak choy (Chinese Cabbage)

• Broccoli: chock full of great stuff, although hard for some of us to take when cooked; makes a fine dipper for sauces when raw but does provide more lycopene when cooked.

• Brussels sprouts: also more palatable to some when raw. Slice very thinly, these baby cabbages add a nice peppery taste to salads. But many people eat them whole and steamed, boiled, or roasted.

• Cabbage: self-evident, surely, and no list of vegetables would be complete without it. In fact, some people even use it in baking! A nice feature of cabbages is that they generally keep quite well under refrigeration. Be sure to try napa cabbage, sometimes also called Chinese cabbage, as it has a nice taste and texture.

• Catsear: sometimes called false dandelion and considered a noxious weed in Washington state (USA); said to be palatable to livestock.  Read more about catsear..

• Celery: This stringy but tasty veggie is perfect for sauces and dips, but eat sparingly if your doc wants you to cut down on sodium. Read more..

• Chard: a mild but flavorful green similar to spinach. Some varieties have very colorful but also very tough stems, so cooks generally retain white stems only. Nutritional studies suggest that chard helps regulate blood sugar.

• Corn salad: also called Lewiston cornsalad, lamb's lettuce, field salad, mâche, and rapunzel, this habitué of veggie lists has dark spoon-shaped leaves and a particularly tangy flavor.

• Dandelion: more than just a lawn pest, the dandelion is rich in vitamins A, B complex, C, and D, and also contains iron, potassium, and zinc. Try adding its (well-washed!) leaves to salads, sandwiches, and teas for extra punch, and/or make wine from its pretty yellow flowers. Read more..

• Endive: a versatile veggie, endive comes in two versions and has two separate pronunciations. One plant, often called Belgian endive, yields small oblong heads with tightly furled white/light-green leaves; these are pronounced ahn-deev, in the French manner. The other, with looser and darker-green curly leaves, is pronounced enn-dive. Although both make wonderful salad ingredients, the headed version is the one more-commonly cooked.

• Golden samphire: a leafy bush with large yellow flowers growing in marshy or coastal areas; its young leaves are eaten raw or cooked.

• Good King Henry: a weed of the goosefoot family with arrow-shaped leaves and small green flowers.  It is a type of spinach eaten either raw or cooked. Native to Central and Southern Europe. (Latin name: Chenopodium bonus-henricus)

• Kai-lan: also known as Chinese broccoli or Chinese kale.

• Kale: a variety of cabbage with dark green curly leaves and no heart.  (Latin name: Brassica oleracea acephala)

• Kohlrabi: a bulb veggie growing above ground. Often green, kohlrabi is also sometimes white or purple. Although its many leaf stems give it an oddish look, it’s actually quite tasty and can be eaten either raw or cooked. Try the bulb coarsely shredded in salads, for example, and toss the leaves into stir fries...

• Komatsuna: a leafy vegetable with a flavor resembling mustard greens; used in salads or Asian stir fry dishes.

• Lettuce: I think most of us have experienced at least a few varieties of this wonderful salad green: romaine, iceberg, oak leaf, mache (watch out for grit), and those little bitty heads that are so cute and tasty.

• Miner’s Lettuce: succulent herb sometimes grown as a salad or pot herb; grows on dunes and waste ground of Pacific coast of North America

• Mizuna greens: a Japanese mustard green with jagged-edge green leaves and a peppery flavor; used in salads, stir-fries and soups.

• Mustard greens: quick to mature and easy to grow, this veggie is a cool-season crop popular for "greens" recipes and salads. Read more..

• Orache: leafy vegetable with a salty, spinach-like taste; also called Red orach, Mountain spinach, or French spinach. Read more..

• Pea pods: a leguminous plant of the genus Pisum with small white flowers and long green pods containing edible green seeds

• Purslane: mild, chewy vegetable with a thick reddish stem; has a slight citrus flavor that's yummy in salads. (Caution: If gathering it wild, watch out for spurge, a poisonous creeping wild plant sometimes found near purslane.Spurge has a wiry stem that gives off a white, milky sap when you break it.)

• Radicchio: Not green (reddish-purple), but leafy; keeps amazingly well and punches up salads with its bright, peppery taste.

• Rapini: a green veggie with spiked leaves surrounding a green bud that looks much like a small head of broccoli. Often, there are small yellow flowers blooming from the buds, which are edible. Flavor said to be nutty, sometimes bitter and pungent, and often delicious.

• Samphire: long, fleshy, bright-green, shining leaflets (full of aromatic juice); long used as a condiment and pickle, or as a salad ingredient.

• Sea beet: grows wild along some shores in Great Britain; often known as wild spinach, its leaves have a pleasant texture and taste when served raw or cooked.

• Sea Kale, smooth, fleshy perennial plant, member of the mustard family, native to the seacoasts of Europe. Sea kale is cultivated for its spring shoots and leaves, which, when blanched, are used as a potherb. The plant grows as high as 60 cm (24 in), and its large, light green, cabbage-like leaves are somewhat fringed or curled. It bears tall clusters of white, honey-scented flowers.
  Scientific classification: Sea kale is a member of family Brassicaceae (formerly Cruciferae). It is classified as Crambe maritima.

• Spinach, common name for an annual crop plant, of the goosefoot family, grown for its nutritious and savory leaves. Probably native to southwestern Asia, spinach was introduced to Europe by the 12th century. It became cultivated worldwide and received sudden popularity in the 1920s when nutritionists found it contained iron, vitamin A, and vitamin B₂, or riboflavin. Read more..

• Taro leaves: one of several common names for large perennial herbs of a plant genus, especially for one species, of the arum family. The genus is grown throughout the Tropics for its starchy corms (swollen underground stems), which yield about 50 percent starch but which must be cooked before eating to eliminate a poisonous substance, calcium oxalate. Taro is native to Southeast Asia, but its cultivation had spread to the Mediterranean by classical times and to the Pacific islands by 1000 years ago. Other names include dasheen, eddoe (West Indies), and cocyam (West Africa). Forms of the genus are grown ornamentally for their huge leaves, known as elephant ears. Poi, the national dish of Hawaii, is made from boiled taro that is pounded, then fermented to form a sticky, edible paste.
  Scientific classification: Taro belongs to the family Araceae. It is classified as Colocasia esculenta.

• Tatsoi: also called spinach mustard, spoon mustard, or rosette bok choy; has a soft creamy texture and a subtle flavor. Said to withstand temperatures down to –10°C (15°F) and remain edible even when harvested under the snow.

• Turnip greens: a good calcium source for vegetarians and everyone else, turnip greens are simply the leafy tops of mature turnips; also worth noting is their high vitamins K and A content. Cooking method? Foodies recommend steaming for 5 minutes or so to get the best taste.

• Watercress: a peppery and nutritious veggie often used in sandwiches and salads today, this cress has been promoted for many centuries as a preventive or remedy for various maladies including scurvy. Many people, however, eat it simply for its bright taste.

• Water spinach: green plant with very narrow leaves and light-green stalks; often used in Chinese cuisine.