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 The mustard is a pungent, bright green plant with leaves so curly that they ruffle.
Health Benefits: Like other dark leafy greens from the cabbage family, mustards are a superior anticancer vegetable. As their bite indicates, they help move stuck energy and so are beneficial for people with colds, arthristis, or depression.
Use: For most people, the mustard’s pungent flavor is too strong when raw or steamed, but it quickly mellows with parboiling or sautéing. Mustard greens are especially good when sautéed with garlic and also may be added to soups and stews.
Buying: Mustard greens are available all year long. Select young, fresh looking greens. They fade more quickly than collards or broccoli, so plan to use them within several days.
 Turnip greens provide larger amounts of vitamins and minerals and are especially rich in folic acid. This vitamin is essential for the normal growth and maintenance of all cells and vital for the reproduction of those cells within the fetus.
The greens are usually sold separately. You cannot have nice greens and roots at the same time. A big root will have bitter leaves and nice leaves are ready to eat when the root is still really small. The green leaves are often cooked like spinach.
 Of all vegetables in the garden, Brussels sprout look the strangest. From 20 to 40 auxiliary buds (or baby cabbages) grow close together along a tall, single stalk that's topped with small cabbage like leaves. Brussels sprout originated in Brussels, Belgium--ergo its name. The Germans more aptly called it Rosen kohl, or rose cabbage.
Use: In a traditional British Christmas dinner, Brussels sprout are a given. To serve Brussel sprouts whole, trim, then cut an X into the base of each one to enable the heat to penetrate their center more quickly and cook through before the outer leaves are overdone. Blanch or steam until just tender but still a vibrant green. Brussels sprout may also be halved, quartered, thinly sliced, or, for an elegant but time-consuming dish, separate each leaf. Brussels sprout at their prime need to be seasoned only with butter and salt or with extra virgin olive oil and vinegar. If they are not sweet, they invite more assertive flavorings.
 Endive is a variation of the winter leaf vegetable chicory which can be cooked or used in salads, created by growing chicory (or certain similar breeds) until its foliage sprouts, then cutting off the leaves and placing the still-living stem and root in a dark place. They grow a second bud, but without the sunlight it is white and lacks the bitterness of the normal chicory bud.
 Aka: Dinosaur, Italian, or Tuscan Kale, Ornamental Kale, Salad Savoy, Scotch or Curly Kale, Russian Kale.
Kale is the grandmother of the whole cabbage family. One would expect such an old-timer to be hardy, and indeed kale is. It has a strident flavor, a sturdy appearance, and the pluck to withstand frost and even snow. In fact, kale is sweetest after a good frost or, in mild climates, after it has wintered over. Like a collard green in size and shape, a kale leaf is crisp and tightly curled-like curly parsley.
Health Benefits: Kale is an exceptional source of chlorophyll, calcium, iron, and vitamins A and C.
Use: Substitute kale for cabbage whenever you want a bright green color and additional chlorophyll. Use the very young leaves in salads. Garden-fresh kale may be lightly steamed; if older, it requires longer cooking. Kale is available year-round but is best in the cold months. Among the types of kale marketed here are: • Dinosaur, Italian, or Tuscan Kale is an old variety with narrow, almost black-green savoy like leaves and a sweet, mild flavor. • Siberian or Russian Kale has broader, deeply serrated leaves that may or may not be curled. It is available in green or red varieties. This is the largest growing variety.
 Also known as "Dinosaur Kale," this unique variety has the richest, darkest blue-green leaves of any kale. Deeply savoyed leaves have smooth margins and are blade-shaped. This strain has been reinvigorated by Frank Morton and is widely appreciated for its superior flavor, vigor, and hardiness.
 A cold hardy delicate, flavorful variety of kale. Its leaves are frilly and oak leaved in shape and red veined, greenish purple in color. Ideal for fall crops. Enjoy its greens fresh in salads or steamed and stir fried alone or with other vegetables.
 A mild-tasting kale variety, collards are blue-green with large, smooth, non-heading paddle like leaves. Collard greens, a favorite soul food of the American South, are available twelve months of the year. Collards contain nearly the same amount of calcium as milk.
Health Benefits: Collard leaves are rich in calcium (226 mg per cup, cooked), vitamins B1, B2, B9, and C (which may be leached by cooking, however), as well as beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A). Each 100 g of leaves provides 46 calories (190 kilojoules) of food energy and contains 4 g of protein, 0.5 grams of fat, 7 g of carbohydrates.
Use: Only firm, dark green leaves are fit for consumption; any wilted or yellowish leaves must be discarded. Collards have higher nutritional value when cooked than when raw due to the tough cell structure; they can be blended into a juice, usually in combination with sweet fruit juices to improve the flavor. Collards are usually consumed cooked, as meal fillers and as a source of dietary fiber, especially as a balance to fish and meat dishes.
 The word cabbage derives from the Latin word caput, meaning "head." And a head it is, indeed, with very little else save prerequisite roots. The cabbage has more bad press than any vegetable because when overcooked it emits hydrogen sulfide (the rotten egg aroma), ammonia, and other foul smells. Take a cue and don't boil it to death or your intestinal gas will be similarly sulfurous. Cooked with care, though, cabbage is a delicious vegetable. Wild cabbages still grow in England and the Mediterranean area.
Health Benefits: The outer, greener cabbage leaves contain more chlorophyll, vitamin E, and calcium than the inner, pale leaves. Cabbage is higher in vitamin C than oranges and is a superior source of vitamin U, an ulcer remedy. Organic cabbage is also a good source for many minerals.
Use: Cabbage can be eaten raw, as in slaws. When not overcooked, it is delicious and versatile in soups, or in simmered, sautéed, steamed, or baked dishes. The leaves make excellent wrappers for a savory filling. And pickled in sauerkraut its delectable. Savoy cabbage has a looser head, a sweeter, milder flavor, and a buttery smooth texture.
 Tender crinkled leaves with green cabbage flavor and shape.
Health Benefits: Cabbage contains significant amounts glutamine, an amino acid, which has anti-inflammatory properties.
Use: The only part of the plant that is normally eaten is the leafy head; more precisely, the spherical cluster of immature leaves, excluding the partially unfolded outer leaves. The so-called 'cabbage head' is widely consumed — raw, cooked, or preserved — in a great variety of dishes. Cabbage is a leaf vegetable.
 A sweet cabbage, great raw in salads. To further vivify the ruby of a red cabbage, cook it with a splash of acid like lemon juice, vinegar, or wine. When cooked in alkaline water or with mineral-rich foods, such as sea vegetables, it turns blue. Phenolic compounds give red cabbage its characteristic color as well as additional antioxidant properties.
 Aka: Chinese Cabbage
Napa cabbage has been described as a cabbage that even cabbage haters love. It is crispier, juicier, sweeter, and more tender than common cabbage. There are several varieties of Napa cabbage. All form a head, but the head varies from round like cabbage to elongated like Romaine lettuce. In addition, the crinkly leaves may curl inward or outward.
Health Benefits: Napa cabbage has but a fraction of cabbage's sulfur compounds. It is very low in calories and in sodium. It is an excellent source of folic acid and vitamin A and a good potassium source.
Use: Chinese cabbage's sweet flavor is enhanced with long simmering and the leaves become silky soft but still hold their form. Try it in soups, stews, baked, or braised. It's also delicious when lightly cooked (stir-fries, steamed, blanched) or even raw in a salad. Its thin, crispy-crunchy leaves add great texture to a garden salad, and it makes an excellent salad base on its own. The blanched leaf makes a flexible and excellent wrapper that is, compared to common cabbage easier to work with and, to my eye, more beautiful and delicate. Pickled Chinese cabbage, kim chee, the signature dish of Korea, is as easy to make as sauerkraut, the pickled cabbage of equal prominence in German cuisine. Small dark specks are naturally occurring. Napa cabbage stores exceptionally well (but not as long as cabbage), and the flavor even improves when slightly wilted.
 Bok Choy is a small plant with a rosette of upright dark green leaves held on large, thick, flat white stalks. A popular vegetable in China since at least the fifth century, it is sweet, crisp, and mild tasting.
Health Benefits: It is an excellent source of vitamins A and C as well as the numerous phytonutrients common to the cruciferous (cabbage) family.
Use: Bok Choy stems are juicy and sweet and take a few minutes longer to cook than the mild-tasting greens. Delicious in stir-fries and soups, bok choy leaves are also used as a vegetable wrap for food morsels. If the plant is flowering, use the flowers as well.
 Bok choy has crunchy stems and crinkled, spinach-like leaves. It's usually stir-fried with other ingredients, but it can also be steamed or sautéed and served as a side dish. Small heads of bok choy are called baby bok choy and they are more tender than the larger variety.
 Chard’s leaves can be prepared like spinach, and its stalks like asparagus. In fact, its leaves serve as a good substitute for spinach in most recipes, but they will need to be cooked slightly longer.
Health Benefits: Chard is a fat-free, cholesterol-free vegetable, low in sodium and calories. Chard is also nutritious because they are high in vitamins A, C and loaded with calcium, iron and fiber. All varieties of greens are naturally low in carbohydrates.
Use: Chard may be steamed, sautéed, or braised, and it can be added to soups, stews, and casseroles. The leaves and stems may be cooked and served together, or prepared separately as two different vegetables. The Italians make an egg frittata with chard. For salads and sandwiches, it’s best to use young, tender leaves. For a simple side vegetable, leaves of medium size can be quickly sautéed—the stalks can be prepared this way, too. Older leaves and stalks are best steamed, boiled, or added to soups, as the stems require a longer cooking time to become tender than the leaves do.
Buying: Choose chard with tender, glossy leaves and crisp stalks. Store unwashed chard, wrapped in a plastic bag, in the refrigerator for up to three days.
 Usually a green leaf with a red stem, leaf turns burgundy in winter. Very beautiful, tastes the similar to green chard but is slightly more tender & flavorful.
 Aka: Swiss chard
Chard, a beet relative, takes it name from cardoon because of their similarly shaped leafstalks, which are long and broad. Chard may be either red or white, and its large leaf may be either crinkly-savoy style, or flat.
Health Benefits: Like other greens of the goosefoot family, chard contains oxalic acid and is therefore best used moderately by people with calcium deficiency. It is high in sodium and an excellent source of chlorophyll. Chard eases constipation in the elderly, is homeostatic and helps stop hemorrhage, and supports the liver and the lungs.
Use: Chard is almost as quick cooking as spinach. It may be steamed, sautéed, or braised or it can be added to soups, stews, and casseroles. The Italians make an egg frittata with chard. I usually prepare the leaf and stem together, but they may be cooked and served separately as two different vegetables.
 Spinach is a popular green vegetable throughout temperate regions. Its thick, juicy leaves, cooked or raw, have a velvety quality.
Health Benefits: Spinach, a fast-growing member of the goosefoot family, contains carotene, vitamin C, calcium, and phosphorus. It is higher in protein than most vegetables, but despite Popeye’s admonition – is not higher in iron than other dark leafy greens.
Use: Lightly cooked spinach (cooked only until it begins to go limp), on the other hand, is a delicacy, which absorbs any seasoning agent and doesn’t impart its flavor to other food. Spinach can be eaten raw as a salad green. Avoid cutting spinach with a carbon blade knife, cooking it in aluminum, or serving it in silver, for it discolors these metals.
Buying: Look for crisp bright green leaves with short stems. Avoid spinach that is yellow, wilted, slimy, or with stem ends that show drying.
 A crisp, broadleaf type of endive most often served as a salad green that is also known as escarole, broad chicory, or common chicory. This member of the chicory family has broad outer leaves with a crinkled shape. The leaves provide a slightly bitter taste, yet not as bitter as Belgian or curly endive. As the outer leaves are removed, the inner leaves display a paler green coloring with more white and a taste less bitter than the outer leaves. Escarole is popular as a salad green, eaten raw with mayonnaise or a vinaigrette dressing. When cooked, the greens are often served as a vegetable steamed or braised, and can be added to soups for flavoring in the later stages of soup making.
 Despite tons of herbicides designed to eliminate it, dandelion reigns indomitable on suburban lawns and byways. That gives a clue as to the prowess of this vegetable and to the reason that the French and others esteem it. The dandelion is Eurasian in origin and today grows wild throughout the temperate world. The dandelion's deeply notched leaves explain its Middle Latin name, dente leo, tooth of the lion.
Health Benefits: Dandelion root contains insulin, which lowers blood sugar in diabetics. A cup of dandelion greens provides nearly a day's requirement of vitamin A in the form of antioxidant carotenoid and a third of the daily vitamin C requirement. It contains more calcium than broccoli and is an excellent source of potassium.
Use: Fresh organic or foraged dandelion greens (early spring) with vinaigrette make an excellent salad alone or with other garden greens. If leaves are foraged after the plant blossoms, parboil them to reduce their bitter flavor. From late fall to very early spring, use the bittersweet root as you would a carrot, in stir-fries, soups, or simply sautéed with an onion and garlic. Or use either the root or greens, fresh or dried, in combination with other herbs for medicinal tea. I prefer wild dandelions--greens, crowns, and roots--gathered in the spring before they blossom. The roots and greens are also tasty in the late fall; otherwise, they're mostly bitter. For mild dandelions, pick those protected by shade or partially mulched over by leaves. Gather dandelions before the buds open and use the whole plant.
 This variety is characterized by small, flat leaves with long stems, quite similar looking to dandelion leaves, and a peppery taste. This lettuce is usually paired with other varieties to balance out the taste.
 Sunchokes, of the sunflower family, are native to North America where the natives called them "sun roots" before European settlers arrived. But why "Jerusalem artichokes"? They don't come from Jerusalem nor do they look like artichokes. There are a few theories: when first discovered people started calling them "girasole" (or flower that turns looking for the sun) which eventually became "Jerusalem". Another possibility is that as sunchokes became the staple food of the first European pilgrims in North American soil they named it as food for the "new Jerusalem".
These look like small, knobby potatoes but crunchier, sweeter and do have a slight taste of artichoke. They practically contain no starch, but plenty of inulin (not insulin), which becomes fructose when spuds are stored in the ground or refrigerated. The humble sunchoke is considered gourmet fare by many. Raw, it's an excellent substitute for water chestnuts in hot and spicy stir fries, or cooked in cream soups, broiled with sweet potatoes, or simply scrubbed and baked.
from Rebecca Wood's The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia |
