Don't Throw Out Those Beet Greens; Cook Them!

I was buying vegetables over the weekend from Nevia No, my favorite farmer, when a woman purchasing beets asked Nevia to remove the beets' greens. From fifteen feet away I tracked the conversation, confident the two bunches of voluptuous greens would soon be going home with me.

"You don't want them?" Nevia asked the customer, slightly incredulously.

"No," the woman said. "What do you do with them?"

"You cook them just like any other dark leafy green," Nevia said.

"Oh, I didn't know that," the woman said. "Maybe I'll get there one day."

"ROBBBB!" Nevia shouted, not realizing I was now ten feet away and closing in quickly on my gift from the farmers' market gods.

For $3 you get the beets and their greens, which are delicious and nutritious. For $3 you can get chard, a leafy green very similar to beet greens, but without the beets. You do the math.

Cook beet greens just like you would kale, chard, collard greens and mustard greens. The tops of radishes can be used the same way. Watch the video below to see how easy cooking greens can be. (Sorry about the synthetic non-stick pan; not my production!)

By the way, the woman missed out on some of the tastiest beet greens I've ever eaten. Their flavor was as strong as the beets connected to them.