Top Ten Greens

Collard greens are a type of leafy green vegetable that is common in southern U.S. cooking. Collards feature dark green leaves with tough stems. They're a member of the same group of plants that also includes kale, turnips and mustard.

Romaine lettuce is a popular ingredient in salads, sandwiches, wraps and green smoothies, 8,9 but it has significance in cultural and historical traditions as well.

Parsley root can also be substituted in recipes calling for celeriac, carrots, parsnips, and turnips. It is almost always eaten cooked, but it can be eaten raw too: add it, sliced, to a crudité platter, a coleslaw, or a salad, like Diane Morgan’s salad of parsley root, apple, and watercress found in Roots.

Of all the greens available for salad making, four are considered types of lettuce. The first is iceberg, also known as crisphead. It has a round, compact pale-green head and will last for over a week in the refrigerator because it is 90% water.

Common chicory, Cichorium intybus, is a somewhat woody, perennial herbaceous plant of the dandelion family Asteraceae, usually with bright blue flowers, rarely white or pink. Many varieties are cultivated for salad leaves, chicons (blanched buds), or roots (var. sativum), which are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and additive.

Spinach cultivation spread to Nepal, and by the seventh century, to China, where it’s still called "Persian Greens." The Moors introduced it to Spain around the 11th century. According to the USDA, Americans consume nearly 2½ pounds of spinach per year per capita.

Beet greens have a higher iron content than spinach, and a higher nutritional value than the beetroot itself. The vitamin A content in beet greens helps strengthen the immune system and stimulates production of antibodies and white blood cells.

Chard or Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris, Cicla-Group and Flavescens-Group) (/ tʃ ɑːr d /) is a green leafy vegetable that can be used in Mediterranean cooking. In the cultivars of the Flavescens-Group, the leaf stalks are large and often prepared separately from the leaf blade.

1. Napa Cabbage. Also known as: Chinese cabbage Napa cabbage is probably the most well-known, as it's also available in non-Asian supermarkets. It's a large vegetable with white stalks and pale green leaves arranged cruciferously. The shape is oblong. Napa has a mild taste and a soft texture when cooked, and it's the key ingredient in Korean kimchi.