Green leafy vegetables and Mixed Greens are quite a rage among the health-conscious eaters. Yes, that’s right, too hot to handle! But the fact is that few of us manage to meet the minimum, recommended (USDA) intake of these nutritional powerhouses is truly a shame.
According to a report published by the Centres for Disease Control, green leafy vegetables are your major ‘powerhouse’ vegetable sources. Because they supply on average, 10% or more of the daily value of 17 qualifying nutrients per 100 calories. Surprised?
Here’s some green, top notched powerhouse vegetables sources: watercress, chard, beet greens, spinach, chicory, Chinese cabbage, collard greens, kale, and leaf lettuce.
Green vegetables are packed with a bonanza of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. Not to mention, dark green leafy vegetables are among the most nutritious contenders. The family of dark green leafy vegetables has many nutrients, such as vitamin A, vitamin C, antioxidants, fibre, folate, vitamin K, magnesium, calcium, iron, and potassium.
And in case, you don’t like the taste of Mixed Green Salads or even greens salad, don’t worry. There are billions other ways to incorporate these powerhouse vegetables in your diet! Like sautéed Mixed greens, it’s easy to make, meet the minimum recommended (USDA) intake and tastes a lot better than salads.
Mixed Greens Recipe:
Ingredients:
- Kale/Chard: 1 large bunch
- Spinach: 1 large bunch
- Garlic, minced: 2-3 cloves
- Olive oil: 1 tablespoons
- Green onions, chopped: 3
- Salt to taste
- Freshly grounded pepper to taste
Directions:
- Before you start, make sure that you have rinsed the greens thoroughly and chopped off their thickest parts.
- Now, heat olive oil in a pan and sauté garlic for a minute or two. Add onions and follow the same process as garlic.
- Similarly, add Kale/Chard and let them cook for a minute or two. Then add Spinach and again let it cook for a minute.
- Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.
Try these, if not Mixed Greens :
There are countless varieties of green leafy vegetables to choose from. And if you read the recipe of Mixed Greens then you know, how easy it is to prepare. However, preparing the same to meet your recommended intake might get boring. So, you can also try to experiment these different preparation methods to boost your diet variety. Doesn’t it sounds interesting?
- Egg scrambles: A very basic recipe. All you need to do is add some leafy green vegetables to your omelette or egg scrambles.
- Sandwiches or wraps: Pile the insides of your sandwich with greens like spinach, romaine lettuce or maybe even try to switchbreadwith green leafy vegetables in sandwiches or wraps to reduce starch or processed carbs.
- Smoothies: You know, many mums make vegetable smoothie for their children to boost their diet’s nutritional value. Take a page from the same and try adding green leafy veggies like kale, spinach, or beet greens to your smoothie along with fruits like banana and apple.
This trick is made for pricks who don’t like veggies. And since in a smoothie, you are not likely to taste them this is a great introduction to increasing your mixed greens intake.
Consuming more green leafy vegetables is really easy, inexpensive, and simple. All you need is to put a little efforts and a little bit of advance planning. And fortunately, greens leafy vegetables are available all year round. So, they can be easily incorporated into your meals.
Summary
Leafy green vegetables are packed with necessary and powerful nutrients that are critical for good health. And also the reason that have earned them the title of, ‘Powerhouse Vegetable’. And mixed greens is one such recipe that helps you to reap the many impressive health benefits of leafy green vegetables.
You can try adding them to three meals per week at the beginning and then a few more as you find recipes and varieties that you really enjoy. Thereby, including a variety of these vegetables in your diet.