In every list of the healthiest vegetables you can eat, leafy greens, and particularly dark leafy greens always come out on top. They are nutritionally dense, low in calories and fat, full of fibre, protective against chronic disease, and pretty darn cheap. Unfortunately, they can also be boring af.
Many people associate leafy greens with thepathetic iceberg lettuce side salad you get at a restaurant or that limp frozenspinach that mom used to defrost in the microwave when you were a kid. It canbe hard to come up with flavourful and interesting ways to incorporate moreleafy greens into your daily meals.
But it doesn’t have to be that way! The 50+recipes listed below will hopefully inspire you to the possibilities of theseversatile vegetables; from hearty vegan salads to pastas, tacos, burgersand stir fry, there are a multitude of creative and delicious ways to add moreleafy greens into your diet!
How much leafy greens should I be eating?
The USDA recommends eating 1 ½ - 2 cups (1 cup = 1 cup cooked or 2 cups raw) of dark green vegetables per week. Lol, who comes up with this stuff? Every plant-based doctor recommends DAILY, no weekly, consumption of leafy greens.
In How Not to Die, Dr. Greger recommends twodaily serving sizes of 60 grams of raw greens or 90 grams of cooked greens and Dr. Esselstyn has spoken extensively of the importance of leafy greens in reversing (yes, reversing) heart disease with six fist-sized servings of leafy greens daily.
(If you don’t have heart disease you can eat less, but considering that 9 out of 10 Americans don’t even meet the USDA recommendations for total daily vegetable consumption, you almost certainly need to be eating more leafy greens than you do now!)
I’ve divided the recipes below into the following categories:
arugula / rocket
Swiss chard
kale
spinach
beet greens
collard greens
bok choy
lettuces
microgreens
However, the beauty of leafy greens is that they are often interchangeable in recipes. Don’t like kale? Sub in spinach or Swiss chard. Bought some turnips or radishes? Use the greens, too!
So take a look through the recipes belowand let them inspire you to get creative with your daily dose of leafy greens!
Greens are also low in calories, but high in nutrients and volume, which can be helpful if you're trying to manage your weight," Moore points out. Some of the most nutritious greens include spinach, kale, romaine, watercress, and arugula (see "Salad greens by the numbers").
Leafy green products include romaine lettuce, green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, baby leaf lettuce, escarole, endive, spring mix, spinach, cabbage, kale, arugula, and chard.
However, vitamin K can interact with certain medications, such as blood thinning drugs (like Coumadin). If you are on any medications, talk with your doctor to determine an appropriate amount of green vegetables for you.
While all lettuce is going to provide you with healthy vitamins and minerals, romaine lettuce is the most nutrient-dense, says registered dietitian Danielle Crumble Smith. “It's going to have the highest amount of vitamin A, K, C,” she says.
This crispy and crunchy vegetable is an excellent source of vitamin K, an essential nutrient for blood clotting, wound healing and supporting bone health. In fact, research has shown that romaine lettuce contains more minerals important for bone health than other crisphead lettuce varieties, such as iceberg lettuce.
Celery is a nutrient-rich, low-calorie food. Two stalks of celery contain only 15 calories. Aside from its low calorie count, celery contains dietary fiber, vitamin K, and small amounts of vitamins A and C, calcium and iron. Although celery also contains some natural sodium, it's still considered a low-sodium food.
Aim for eating three to five servings of vegetables like celery a day. 5 Eating even more servings of vegetables, both cooked and raw, is better. A vegetable serving is: One-half cup of cooked vegetables.
Celery with peanut butter is a nutrient-rich snack. Celery and peanut butter are two minimally processed, nutrient-rich foods. As a result, combining the two results in a snack that's rich in fiber and protein. It's also a good source of niacin, manganese, copper, magnesium, and heart-healthy fats ( 1 , 2 ).
When you look at their nutritional makeup, kale has more calcium, vitamin K, and twice as much vitamin C as spinach, she explains. Spinach, however, has more iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc, folate, and vitamins A and E. “Both are highly nutritious choices overall though,” she tells me.
And the winner is …. watercress, with a score of 100 (actually higher but the researcher capped the scores at 100.) It's not just easy to add a handful to that salad (and you'll get the most from its nutrients if you eat it raw), it's easy and quick to grow yourself so you've always got some fresh leaves on hand.
Add to that the fact that most leafy green vegetables contain high levels of fiber, iron, magnesium, potassium, folate, and calcium, are rich in vitamins A, C, E and K, and have very little sodium, cholesterol, and carbohydrates, you can see why green vegetables should be a part of your daily diet.
Introduction: My name is Frankie Dare, I am a funny, beautiful, proud, fair, pleasant, cheerful, enthusiastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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