About Leafy Greens Vegetables

The amazing diversity of leafy greens can't be beat, whether used in salads, side dishes, soups, or stews. Salad greens include lettuce, spinach, endive, escarole, and radicchio. Popular cooking greens include Swiss chard, kale, collards, mustard greens, beet greens, and turnip greens.

Lettuce

There are four basic types of lettuce: crisphead, romaine, butterhead, and looseleaf. Crisphead lettuce forms a dense head. By far the most popular crisphead is iceberg, named as such because it was packed in ice for shipping. Iceberg so dominates the crisphead group that the names are often used interchangeably. Iceberg became very popular because of its long shelf life and because it transports well.

For home gardeners, the looseleafs, which as the name implies do not form compact heads, are the easiest to grow and quickest to harvest. Looseleaf lettuces come in many shapes, textures, and colors. 'Black Seeded Simpson', 'Red Oak Leaf', and 'Salad Bowl' are popular garden varieties.

Butterhead, also called Bibb or Boston lettuce after two early varieties, forms small loose heads. Leaves have a buttery flavour and texture. Popular varieties include 'Four Seasons' and 'Buttercrunch'.

Spinach

Spinach may be either smooth-leaved or crinkle-leaved (also called savoy). There is little difference in flavour between the two. Crinkle-leaved spinach is harder to clean when grown in the garden - not a problem if bought prewashed and packaged at the supermarket. Spinach can be eaten in salads or cooked.

Swiss chard

Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris, subsp. cicla), the oldest member of the beet family, is grown for its large ruffled leaves. Varieties include 'Ruby Chard' with bright red stems and aptly-named 'Bright Lights' with a colourful mixture of red, orange, yellow, pink, and white stems. Swiss chard is similar to spinach and is great steamed, stir-fried, or in a salad. Its stems resemble celery and can be used as a celery substitute.

Kale

Kale is a tasty and nutritious vegetable which is good in salads, soups, or stews. Its sturdy leaves may be frilly or curly, and may be dark green, blue-green, reddish, or purple. Flowering kale resembles large, showy flowers and is often used as a fall ornamental or to decorate salad bars.

Mustard greens

Mustard greens are grown for their spicy, peppery taste. Mustard leaves may be either flat or curly, and range from light green to purple. Pak Choi is an Asian variety of mustard.

Chicories

The chicories which means "white leaf" is a white-headed chicory, the result of a labor-intensive growing method in a dark cellar. Radicchio, a red chicory that looks like a small lettuce, is grown in a similar manner to witloof. A bitter green, it is used in salads. Escarole, sometimes called broadleaf endive, has a mild flavour and wavy leaves that are green in the outer edges of the head, and white at the heart.

Mesclun

Mesclun - from a French word meaning "mixture" - is a combination of lettuces, cultivated greens, and wild greens. Mesclun blends different colours and textures, and a mix of mild, spicy, and bitter flavours.