In the past few decades, the types of greens available at American supermarkets and farmers markets have proliferated. Where there was once simply spinach and collards, there’s now peppery arugula, Swiss chard with rainbow-hued ribs, and crunchy bok choy. While many of the leafy vegetables on this list can be eaten raw, most really shine when cooked.
When in doubt, sauté hearty greens with olive oil and garlic and finish with lemon. You can also fold them into Turkish gozleme, braise them, or plunge them into steaming bowls of a Yunnan-inspired rice noodle dish. For something simple, purée them for green soups and smoothies.
How to shop for greens
When buying greens, look for leaves that aren’t torn, brown, or slimy, but don’t worry if they are a bit dirty with mud or sand—that’s typical of certain greens and can easily be removed with a good rinse. If your greens are wet or damp from a sprinkler at a grocery store, wrap them in a paper towel to absorb the moisture. Greens like these are best stored in a plastic bag in the crisper drawer. Keep in mind that their shelf life varies. Shelf life varies by type, with heartier greens like collards and kale lasting longer than more delicate greens like arugula. If your greens are starting to go and you don’t plan to use them in the next day or two, blanch them and transfer them to the freezer for another day.
How do I choose (and swap between) different types of greens?
Think about how you plan to cook. If you want greens that can handle longer cooking times, reach for collards, kale, or chard. For quick sautés or salads, spinach, arugula, or mizuna are better choices.
Break out of your romaine rut and explore the wide world of salad greens.
Which greens are the most nutritious?
Most leafy greens are nutrient-dense, but some stand out for particular vitamins and minerals. Kale, collard greens, mustard greens, and Swiss chard are especially high in vitamins A, C, and K, while spinach is rich in iron and folate. Dandelion greens and beet greens also pack a nutritional punch, offering high levels of antioxidants and minerals. That said, there’s no single “best” green—enjoying a variety of them matters more than choosing one over another.
Which greens are best when cooked?
Heartier greens like collards, kale, mustard greens, broccoli rabe, and chard benefit most from cooking, which softens their texture and tames bitterness. These types of greens hold their structure well when sautéed, braised, or added to soups and stews. More delicate greens—like mizuna, arugula, and sorrel—can be cooked briefly but are often best enjoyed raw or lightly wilted.
Can all leafy greens be eaten raw?
Nearly all of the greens on this list can be eaten raw, but that doesn’t mean they always should be. Tender greens like spinach, arugula, mizuna, and sorrel work well in salads, while bitter or fibrous greens—such as collards, mustard greens, and broccoli rabe—are generally more enjoyable once cooked. Preparation makes a big difference: massaging, slicing thinly, or blanching can make many greens more palatable raw.
Types of greens
Alternate names: Italian cress, Mediterranean rocket, rugola, rugula, roquette, rucola
Unlike ubiquitous baby arugula, typically sold prewashed and boxed, mature arugula is sold in bunches and has longer, sturdier leaves. It has an intensely peppery flavor and irregularly shaped leaves branching from lighter yellow-green stems, which sometimes require a thorough rinse to remove dirt.
How to use arugula: Like its younger sibling, mature arugula (including its stem) can be eaten raw in a salad on its own or mixed with other leafy greens. Since the full-grown version is slightly heartier, it’s also a good candidate for gently wilting into pasta or cooking into a gratin. You can also blitz it with Parmesan and walnuts to make pesto.
Alternate names: Chinese cabbage, pak choy, pak choi, white mustard cabbage
If you are lucky enough to live near a large Chinese grocery store, you may have access to an extraordinary array of greens, including yu choy, choy sum, gai lan, and many others. Unfortunately, their availability at mainstream grocers varies widely by region. Bok choy, sold practically everywhere, in both mature and baby versions, is the exception. The vegetable is tender and mild—particularly baby bok choy—with a hint of peppery notes. Depending on the variety, the stems may be white or light green, while the leaves will be dark or light green.
How to use bok choy: Bok choy’s leaves are tender while the stems are cabbagey, crunchy, and juicy. Baby bok choy can be cooked whole, halved, or quartered, adding a beautiful visual element to a dish—it can also be enjoyed raw in a salad. Mature bok choy, meanwhile, is best when the stems are given more time to cook, and the leaves are added to a hot pan or pot of soup at the last moment.
Alternate names: rapini and cime di rabe
Despite its name, broccoli rabe is more closely related to the turnip than to stem broccoli (all three are in the brassica family). The leafy green has fibrous stems and small florets, which are sometimes livened by edible little yellow flowers. It’s pleasantly (sometimes intensely) bitter, with the exception of when it is overwintered and left in fields until the spring. It’s particularly popular in Italian-American cooking and a staple at classic red-sauce joints.
How to use broccoli rabe: Cooking broccoli rabe helps temper its bitterness and soften its fibrous stems. Most recipes call for blanching, sautéing, or both. Like other bitter veggies (think: radicchio), broccoli rabe pairs well with punchy flavors like anchovies, lemon, and garlic. You can also balance it with cheese, like a large slab of mozzarella.
Alternate names and varieties: Swiss chard, silver beet, spinach beet, leaf beet, seakale beet, white beet, rainbow chard, white chard, red chard
This vegetable makes a bold statement with its large, thick, glossy green leaves. Its veins and stalks can sport vibrant colors like yellow, orange, or pink, or present as a demure snowy white. The leaves taste somewhat like a more intense version of spinach, though the texture of chard leaves is nowhere near as smooth—or as soft. Like cilantro, chard can be polarizing, with some tasters detecting an earthy, dirt-like flavor in these greens. It also packs a serious potassium punch.
How to use chard: The stems and the greens are best prepared separately to prevent the leaves from getting overcooked. To separate the two quickly, hold the stem end in one hand and use your thumb and index finger to pinch the bottom of the leaf, then run your fingers down the stalk, separating the leaf as you go. Trim, but don’t discard the stalks: they have a mellow flavor and are high in fiber.
For the simplest side dish, sauté the stems with garlic in olive oil until they soften. Then, add the leaves and let them melt before finishing with salt, pepper, and lemon. You can also add chard to soups, pots of beans or pasta, salads, and even grill them. Like grape leaves, they can also be stuffed with rice or wrapped around fish, but it’s helpful to blanch them first.
Collard Greens
Alternate names: Collards, borekale
Closely related to kale, collard greens have large, mostly flat leaves and are often associated with Southern cooking in the United States. They are often cooked with cured pork, such as ham hocks. Collards have Mediterranean origins and pop up in plenty of cuisines, like this Portuguese caldo verde.
How to use collards: These leafy greens are some of the heartiest on our list—right up there with kale. While they can be very thinly sliced and served in a salad, they take well to long braises, helping create deeply flavored potlikker that should absolutely never be wasted.
Known for their bitterness, dandelion greens are a relative of wild chicory and “one of the most widespread wild plants of temperate regions worldwide,” according to The Oxford Companion to Food. The leaves are long with a white (or, much less often, red) rib running up the center, with green jagged edges that flutter out.
How to use dandelion greens: The most bitter of the greens on this list, dandelion greens can be divisive—a love-it-or-hate-it vegetable. Whether cooked or served in a salad, this green requires flavors like lemon, vinegar, hot peppers, and anchovies to stand up to it, or fatty richness like bacon lardons.
Part of the chicory family—like endive and radicchio—escarole can be mistaken for a head of leaf lettuce at first glance. The outer leaves of escarole are darker green and heartier, while the inner leaves are smaller, more tender, and pale yellow in color. Bitter and slightly sharp, this green can stand up to heat in a way lettuce can’t.
How to use escarole: While escarole is perhaps best known for its role in Italian wedding soup, it’s versatile. Like Swiss chard, it can be added to pots of beans, pastas, or soup without falling apart. You can also use it raw, in a salad (or cooked in a salad) or as a side for slow-roasted salmon, use it to wrap bundles of bejeweled rice for steaming, or sauté it with ground meat in an Italian-flavored stir-fry.
Alternate names and varieties: Borecole, curly kale, Tuscan kale, black kale, dinosaur, lacinato, cavolo nero
Part of the brassica family, kale comes in several varieties, including purple ones, but most are shades of deep green. Two of the most popular types of kale are lacinato kale, with craggy dark leaves, and curly kale, with curly leaves, as its name suggests.
How to use kale: Unlike some of its relatives, kale holds its shape and texture well in dishes like this lentil and wheatberry soup, shrinking less dramatically than more delicate greens like spinach. For a crispy snack, try making kale chips.
If you prefer to leave your oven off, blend it into a nutritious green smoothie. For a kale salad, it’s best to remove the stems, slice the kale, and massage the leaves with olive oil and/or salt to break down the cell membranes, making them more supple. Some recipes call for discarding the stems and while they are fibrous, they can be trimmed, finely chopped, and added to soups, stews, or pots of beans for extra fiber and flavor.
Alternate names: Japanese mustard greens, spider mustard, California pepper grass
While mizuna may have originated in China, these days it’s most often intertwined with Japanese cuisine (its name means “water greens” in Japanese). Its sharply jagged leaves run along thin white stalks that grow in rosettes. The plant has a mildly peppery bite and a delicate bitterness. It is also a good source of vitamins A and C.
How to use mizuna: While mizuna can be sautéed or stir-fried, it’s arguably best treated delicately, like arugula, to add vibrance to a mixed green salad. Even a small handful will make its presence known.
Alternate names: Curled mustard, American mustard greens
The most recognizable variety of mustard greens in American supermarkets has frilled, curly edges that help make them stand out in a crowd. They are an integral part of Southern cuisine, usually braised and sometimes mixed with other cooking greens, like collards and turnip greens. There are a number of Asian varieties, such as dai gai choy, bamboo mustard, and green-leafed mustard, all of which look nothing like the American version, but still contribute a zesty, wasabi-like bite to any dish.
How to cook mustard greens: Similar to kale and chard, mustard greens will collapse on themselves as they cook, but will still hold some of their structure in dishes like a pan of greens with cream and eggs or sake-braised mustard greens. You can also buy pickled mustard greens at Asian grocery stores and add them to Yunnan noodle soup or khao soi.
Alternate names and varietes: Common sorrel, garden sorrel, broad-leaved sorrel, spinach dock, sour dock, narrow-leaf dock
Sorrel’s delicate leaves impart a bright, sour taste when eaten raw. It can be difficult to find in most U.S. grocery stores, though it does appear at farmers markets and specialty shops, and young sorrel leaves are often included in boxed mesculun mix. Don’t confuse them with the tart Caribbean drink also known as sorrel, which is made with hibiscus flowers.
Mature sorrel leaves can be found at farmers markets and specialty shops in early summer. It can be easy to confuse sorrel with more mature spinach or even arugula; look for sword-like, elongated, and tapered leaves.
How to use sorrel: The pleasingly sour flavor profile cuts the richness of cream and fat in dishes like plachinda, a Moldovan bread with cheese and sorrel. It also pairs well with meats like lamb with a sorrel salsa verde, and can be used in cold soups like Eastern European schav or a chilled soup with nettle and watercress.
Though originally from Persia, spinach is one of the most common greens in the US. Both baby spinach and mature spinach can be cooked or eaten raw, however, baby spinach is often best for salads, while mature spinach holds up better to cooking. Mature spinach has heartier stems and leaves. Often grown in sandy soil, it’s best to rinse it very thoroughly before using—though even clean spinach can cause some diners to experience a phenomenon known as “spinach teeth.” Spinach shrinks considerably when it’s cooked; when in doubt, buy more than you think you will need.
How to use spinach: Spinach isn’t overpowering, making this green particularly versatile. It’s excellent sautéed with olive oil and garlic, then spritzed with lemon, folded into spanakopita, blended into a riff on saag paneer, or tucked into stuffed shells. While fresh spinach is crucial for salads, don’t overlook frozen spinach, which can come in handy, as in this recipe for torshi tareh, a Persian sour herb stew.
Numerous root vegetables, including beets, kohlrabi, radishes, and turnips, produce greens that grow above the ground. These greens are often rich in vitamins—beet greens have loads of vitamin K, for instance—and plenty of flavor. Unfortunately, they are too often thrown away, either by sellers or cooks. You’re most likely to come across them at farmers markets, but if you happen to come across roots with their greens still attached, separate them when you get home and store the greens wrapped in a paper towel in a resealable bag.
How to use vegetable greens: Beet, kohlrabi, radish, and turnip greens are best cooked separately from their root vegetable counterparts, which are denser and require longer cooking times. Beet, kohlrabi, and turnip greens are on the heartier side, not dissimilar to Swiss chard. Chop the stems and sauté them in olive oil for about a minute before adding the greens. Meanwhile, radish greens can be prickly, delicate, and cook very quickly. You can saute them for just a minute or two, or try stir-frying them.
