Eat your greens

2 easy ways to get extra green veg into your diet

Green veg is something I’ve been trying to eat a lot more of. Lots of the everyday recipes I love are a bit light on it and although I’m not averse to chucking in a few handfuls of spinach at the end, it doesn’t always work. And my youngest, like so many kids, is highly suspicious of green bits!

So I’m often looking for quick and easy ways to serve extra green veg alongside our main dish.

First up, green salad. We’re huge fans of a green salad and it probably appears on our dinner table 3 or 4 times a week. What I’m not such a huge fan of is those bags of pre-prepared mixed leaves from the supermarket. You know, the ones that wilt as soon as you open the bag? J I like a bit more crunch in my salad. I also like my salad to last a bit longer in the fridge! And to be honest, bog standard lettuce is mainly water and not really all that nutritious. So I tend to blend my own mix of salad leaves.

Here’s my formula: 
1. Something crunchy: little gem, Cos, Romaine or similar (all keep brilliantly in the fridge)
2. Something dark green: spinach, rocket, watercress or baby kale
3. Added optional extras: usually chicory or finely sliced celery in the winter. In summer, it might be old fashioned round lettuce, pea shoots, thinly sliced courgette, cucumber, blanched green beans or broad beans – whatever you fancy.
4. Dressing: mix together 1tsp of Dijon mustard and 1tbsp balsamic vinegar in a small jar (with a lid!). Slowly add olive oil to taste, shaking the jar well to emulsify the dressing – the amount of oil you’ll need will depend on how tangy and/or thick you want your dressing. This takes 2 minutes tops and tastes a million times nicer than any shop bought dressing ever. It also keeps well in the fridge for a few days, so it’s worth doubling up the amounts so you have a stash for another day.

You can obviously add all sorts of things to make salads more interesting – I’ll be talking about that soon – but I wanted to start with something simple and easy that you can throw together without thinking about it too much. My default is little gem, spinach and chicory.

You can also mix up the dressing – try different mustards, vinegars or swap the vinegar for lemon or lime juice. Add finely chopped herbs if you like too. But again, this is a good basic dressing to have up your sleeve. Drizzle a little over your salad and gently mix it all together.

I find spinach keeps a bit better than rocket or watercress. And they all last longer if you add a piece of kitchen paper to the bag and then clamp it shut with one of these clips.

Disclaimer: my youngest refuses to eat salad but likes having a small bowl of raw veg to munch on. Mainly carrots. But he will also tolerate sugarsnaps, red pepper and a recent victory is the inclusion of a couple of raw spinach leaves (woo hoo, it’s only taken 10 years to get to this point)

A second option I’m going to throw in is a side order of steamed greens. Could be cabbage, spinach, broccoli (either bog standard kind or purple sprouting), Brussels sprouts, spring greens, cavolo nero – again, we’re aiming for variety, so mix it up as much as you like. Serve them plain if you like but pretty much all greens taste delicious with a squeeze of lemon. Or drizzle with a tiny bit of olive oil. Or both.

Or in River Cottage Veg (one of my absolute favourite books), Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall suggests tossing your greens in a mix of butter, olive oil and garlic that you’ve gently warmed together for a minute. Which is delicious but does require an extra pan. As a result, a quick squeeze of lemon is my go to option.

Either way, this is a great accompaniment to a hearty casserole or a stir fry or perhaps a piece of fish.
So what’s your favourite way to eat your greens? I’d love to hear your ideas.