Delight in Spring Greens

Early spring veggies are sweet, tender and delicious - not to mention nutritious. Here are a few tips on using and storing your veggies.

Greens will go bad quickly if they are sitting in water in the fridge so I don't store them in the plastic bags I use in the pick up room. I have a couple of large plastic containers in which I have placed a paper towel on the bottom. It works equally well for washed and unwashed greens. The greens will stay fresh in it for up to a couple of weeks. I usually separate the harvest into salad greens and cooking greens and keep them in separate containers - this makes it easy to reach for what you want.

Red Russian kale - this is a flexible variety of kale, equally yummy sautéed or baked into Kale Chips (click to go to recipe). Save the thick stems and veins you cut off, place in large bag to use later in veggie stock.

Bok Choy, Swiss Chard, spinach - I list these three together for now because they can be used in so many ways and can be used as alternatives to other greens. I often use chard and/or choy instead of cabbage in recipes. Swiss chard and spinach are great replacements for each other and chard comes with the bonus of delicious crunchy stems - I love to saute onions along with the chard stems until a bit tender, adding red pepper flakes or a chopped up chili pepper if you like a little heat. When these are almost tender, add chopped or sliced garlic, let cook for about 30 seconds (until you can smell it, but be careful not to burn it), then add the chopped chard leaves and saute until wilted but still bright green. You can enjoy like this, or add a bit of sesame oil or soy sauce for added flavor. Bok choy can be enjoyed the same way or chopped up and added to salads for a texture contrast to the lettuce.

Green garlic - what a treat for early in the season! Use as you would any garlic in recipes, but please store this one in the fridge. The entire plant is edible at this stage.

Radishes, turnips - these can be eaten raw, sliced and added to salads or used with your favorite dips. They are both also delicious roasted in the oven with a bit of olive oil, garlic and/or some fresh or dry thyme. Don't toss the tops - they are wonderful sautéed - in combo with chard or bok choy if desired; or save them and add to the bag with the kale stems to add to a pot for veggie stock.

Arugula - another amazing green best eaten raw in salads in it's own salad, or mixed with other greens. When eating on its own, I like to add salt and pepper, lemon juice and olive oil. Cherry tomatoes, sliced mushrooms are delicious additions.

Lettuce mix - check out this site for many salad dressing recipes. At the top of the website page, scroll to "For Members". Then click on Recipes. There is a search bar to type what you are looking for. If you type in "Salad dressing" there will be a long list of Salad recipes - this can give you great ideas for kale, lettuce, etc. If you type Vinaigrette - the list becomes more defined. Check it out!