Every year, around Hanukka, the wide variety of greens deserves its own newsletter.
The term “greens” is not limited to just green leaves and not just lettuce, but to all of the vegetables with leaves that we eat, including those that are not green. To all of those who do not eat the leafy vegetables – I urge you to give them a chance! They are delicious and healthy.
A bit about all of them:
• All of the leafy vegetables are interchangeable in recipes. For example, a Swiss chard casserole is just as good with kale or spinach instead. Kasha(buckwheat groats)is also delicious with cilantro, dill or mint instead of parsley.
• The greens have been proven to prevent or minimize many diseases, including cancers and heart diseases…
• If your leaves are red, yellow, purple… it means that they contain other useful pigments in addition to chlorophyll, the common green pigment. Great!!!
• The chlorophyll is the substance that absorbs sunlight in the plant and drives the photosynthesis process, which produces energy and transfers it to the plant’s organs.
• For us, the structure of chlorophyll is very similar to that of hemoglobin, which is absorbed easily in the blood and purifies and cleans it. The chlorophyll improves the health of the existing cells, it helps the regeneration of healthy new cells and delays the growth of unwanted bacteria and the absorption of unwanted materials.
• Leafy greens are rich with calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, iron, and vitamins E, C, A and K. They are full of nutritional fiber (those that evacuate the waste from our body) and folic acid.
• You can eat them all fresh (salads, sandwiches, etc) or cooked (steamed, sautéed, stir fried, in soups, baked in casseroles, etc.)
• A slight cooking will make their taste more subtle.
• Chop and cook them minimally and as close to eating time as possible.
• When cooking with them, add them at the end.
• Store them dry in a bag in the fridge until use.
Let’s make some order…. Who is who?
Please welcome the wide range of greens available now:
Broccoli leaves, similar to kayle
Kayle, mother of Cabbage. Superfood! Comes in diffrent colors and shapes
Swiss chard, green and red, from the Amaranthaceae family, just like beet leaves.
Bok Choi, red and green, from the Cruciferae family.
Cיhinesse Cabbage
Roket, also from the Cruciferae family. It has a bitter taste.
New Zealand spinach (not really a spinach), the only one that should not be eaten raw.
Turkish spinach, from the Amaranthaceae family.
Mizuna from the Cruciferae family.
And, of course, there are many others, and you can also eat the leaves of those veggies whose leaves are not the main delicacy, such as broccoli, cauliflower, etc.
Have a week of green and other colors, healthy and fresh.
Maggie, Michelle and the garden team
I expect in this weeks baskets (draft only):
Red chard
Cauliflower
Sweet Potatoes
Onions
Lettuce
Beets
Curly parsley
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
And eggplant
Larger ones also:
Celery
Fennel
Kohlrabi
And Dill
Fruit baskets:
Strawberries!
Clementines
And Sweeties
Larger ones also:
Kiwi
And pomelo
