Greens- In a Class All Their Own

Greens are not ordinary vegetables. Unfortunately, grocery stores lump greens into the vegetable category. Veggies and greens both help our bodies but in different, important ways. Root vegetables like carrots, beets, and turnips are sweet to the taste because they contain sugar and water. By contrast, their green tops taste bitter from the abundance of nutrients in them. While both are necessary for good health, we usually toss out the bitter greens.

Here’s the list Victoria Boutenko provides in Green for Life to make show-stopping smoothies:

Greens: Arugula, asparagus, beet tops, bok choy, broccoli, carrot tops, celery, chard, collard greens, endive, escarole, frisee, kale, mizuna, mustard greens, radicchio, radish tops, Romaine, green and red-leaf lettuce (no Iceberg or light colored leaf), spinach.

Edible Flowers: Clover, elderflowers, dandelions, daylilies, nasturtiums, pansies, violets.

Weeds: Chickweed, clover, dandelion (greens and flowers), lambsquarters, malva, miner’s lettuce, plantain, purslane, stinging nettles.

Herbs: Aloe vera, baby dill, basil, cilantro, fennel, mint, parsley, peppermint leaves, spearmint.

Sprouts: Alfalfa, broccoli, clover, fenugreek, radish, sunflower (use sprouts only 1-2 times per week).

[Lists and recipes are from Victoria Boutenko’s Green for Life-used by permission]