A homegrown salad just might be the healthiest food you can eat. Vegetables just picked in your garden are at their peak of freshness and nutrition. They’re also at their most flavorful. The foundation of bountiful, satisfying salads are the leafy greens. They’re packed with essential vitamins and minerals and low in calories. And salad greens are productive in the garden and easy to incorporate into your daily meals.
What are Salad Greens
Lettuce is the most familiar of the salad greens, and you can choose from fluffy looseleaf lettuce or firm, crisp heading types like romaine or butterhead, including many varieties with burgundy leaves and diverse leaf textures. But lettuce isn’t the only option for salad greens from your garden. Spinach and kale are super-nutritious vegetables, and their young leaves are a healthy addition to salads. If you like a little zing in your salad bowl, you can plant arugula, radicchio, or mustard. A few leaves of fresh basil or escarole add another layer of flavor to the mix. Mesclun is a selection of lettuces and other greens that are blended just for salads.
All types of salad greens are easy to direct-sow into your garden beds. Most grow quickly, producing fresh leaves for you in a matter of weeks. Looseleaf lettuce, arugula, and spinach supply you with a steady harvest, as long as you let a few leaves stay on the plants when you cut some to eat. Salad greens produce a lot of food from any garden space. You can even plant them in large containers.
Most salad greens grow best in cool temperatures, so you plant them in early spring or late summer for a fall crop. Basil needs a lot of sun and heat to be productive. Malabar spinach is a salad green that flourishes in heat and humidity, conditions that cause standard types of spinach to turn bitter and tough. Romaine lettuce tends to be the most heat tolerant, so it’s a good choice if the weather heats up quickly where you live.
How Salad Greens Benefit Your Health
- Vitamin K: Vitamin K is important for bone metabolism and protection against fracture risks associated with osteoporosis. It’s found in most salad greens, with spinach, mustard greens, and radicchio being rich sources. Kale delivers a megadose of Vitamin K: 684% of the FDA’s recommended daily value in one cup of raw leaves.
- Fiber: Many salad greens – including escarole, radicchio, and lettuce – are rich sources of insoluble fiber, which helps keep your digestive system running smoothly.
- Vitamin A: Spinach and kale are packed with beta-carotene that converts to Vitamin A, a powerful antioxidant that helps slow macular degeneration of the eyes caused by aging. It’s also been shown to reduce cataract risk and support immune function. You’ll find ample amounts of Vitamin A in mustard greens, lettuce, and purslane.
- Vitamin C: This immunity-supporting antioxidant is essential for the absorption of iron, which aids in the function of your red blood cells. Vitamin C may also help manage high blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease. Spinach and kale are rich in C — in fact, one cup of raw kale contains more than an orange!
- Potassium: Important for heart and nerve function, this electrolyte also helps control muscle contraction and reduce the negative effects of sodium. You’ll find a good supply of it in arugula and kale.
- Folate: This B vitamin helps with metabolism and is vital for the creation of red and white blood cells. Because it aids in the production of DNA, it’s essential for women who are pregnant, reducing risk for birth defects. Spinach and escarole boast excellent levels of folate, while Asian greens, cabbage, and lettuce are prime sources, too.
Grow your own custom blend of salad greens to fill your bowl with health benefits!
Low in calories, sugar, fat and carbohydrates, salad greens — from lettuce and kale, spinach and arugula, to escarole, radicchio, mustard greens and more — are also packed with vitamins and nutrients.
Here are six ways your bowl of salad greens benefits your health:
Vitamin K
Vitamin K is important for bone metabolism and protection against fracture risks associated with osteoporosis. It’s found in most salad greens, with cabbage (particularly red varieties, though green is also good), spinach, mustard greens and radicchio being rich sources. Kale delivers a megadose of Vitamin K: 684% of the FDA’s recommended daily value in one cup of raw leaves.
Fiber
Many salad greens – including escarole, radicchio, lettuce and cabbage – are good sources of insoluble fiber, which helps keep your digestive system running smoothly. Cabbage also contains soluble fiber, which promotes the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut and has been shown to help lower “bad” LDL cholesterol.
Vitamin A
Spinach and kale are packed with beta-carotene that converts to Vitamin A, a powerful antioxidant that helps slow macular degeneration of the eyes caused by aging. It’s also been shown to reduce cataract risk and support immune function. You’ll find ample amounts of Vitamin A in mustard greens, lettuce and purslane.
Vitamin C
This immunity-supporting antioxidant is essential for the absorption of iron, which aids in the function of your red blood cells. Vitamin C may also help manage high blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease. Spinach and cabbage are rich in C, while kale is one of the top sources — one cup of raw kale contains more than an orange!
Potassium
Important for heart and nerve function, this electrolyte also helps control muscle contraction and reduce the negative effects of sodium. You’ll find a good supply of it in arugula, kale and cabbage — in particular, red varieties.
Folate
This B vitamin helps with metabolism and is vital for the creation of red and white blood cells. Because it aids in the production of DNA, it’s essential for women who are pregnant, reducing risk for birth defects. Spinach and escarole boast excellent levels of folate, while Asian greens, cabbage and lettuce are prime sources, too.
Grow your own custom blend of salad greens to fill your bowl with health benefits!