Leafy green vegetables are a staple of a healthy diet. Much has been made over these powerhouse nutrition giants. Leafy greens provide much needed vitamins and fiber to your meals. Here are a few easy ways to add leafy greens into your diet.
Easy Sauteed Greens
Take any of your favorite greens and saute. Kale, swiss chard and spinach are all delicious sauteed in olive oil with some grated or sliced garlic and a dash of red chili flakes, with the addition of a toss of grated parmesan to finish it off as a special treat. This side dish can be cooked in a jiffy, and can become a tasty addition to your regular weekly menu.
Substitute Greens In Your Regular Dishes
Bagged shredded cabbage is an easy fix to use to add greens to your weekly meals. Instead of using lettuce in your tacos substitute shredded cabbage, it will give your tacos a crunchy factor and add nutrition to your meal. When making salads use finely shredded cabbage or baby spinach instead of lettuce, this ups the nutrition factor for your meal.
Leafy Greens For Breakfast
Yes you can sneak a number of leafy green vegetables into your breakfast fare. The easiest is of course spinach, and most other leafy greens can be cooked down and added as well. When using spinach be sure to squeeze out the liquid after cooking so you don’t end up with watery spinach in your food. Wilt the spinach in a saute pan then add it to scrambled eggs, omelets, and even quiche.
Make A Kale Salad
Use kale as a salad by tearing pieces from the stem. Add your usual oil, vinegar, and spices, then toss and let the kale sit a while to soften. What you will end up with is an easy salad using one of the best dark green leafy veggies known to pack high nutrition.
Make Homemade Soup
Are you over sauteed greens? Too much bother? Anyone who has made homemade soup knows its pretty easy to make once you get a few recipes under your belt. Cook down cabbage, kale, spinach, or swiss chard and add to your basic soup. Leafy greens are great in vegetable soups, spinach is excellent in minestrone soup, and cabbage can be used in Asian soup recipes.
Cook With Herbs
Surprise: leafy herbs have good nutritional value! There are a number of vitamins and antioxidants in basic cooking herbs. Add flavor to your dishes and nutrition at the same time. Basil contains vitamin-A and beta-carotene; cilantro contains vitamin-A, beta carotene, and vitamin-C; parsley contains vitamin-A, beta-carotene, vitamin-C and vitamin-E; oregano contains vitamin-A and vitamin-C; and sage contains vitamin-A and beta-carotene.
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