I’m not a fan of food wastage. I think there are a lot of parts of food that are very tasty, but we throw out. In the past, when food was more scarce, people used to eat all edible parts of an animal or vegetable. Now scarcity isn’t such an issue, but considering that we only have one planet, I think it’s a shame to waste parts of food. Throwing things out also makes you miss out, because when cooked in the right way, they can be delicious. One of these often-wasted food items is veggie greens.

I started eating greens last year, when a woman at the Kollwitzplatz market asked me if I wanted to leave the greens on the bunch of beets I was buying. I chose to leave them on, figuring there must be a reason she asked me. I started off simple, cooking them much like I would spinach, but I’ve branched off from there. Many other veggies also have edible greens. I made a nice pasta sauce from roasted radish greens that I found in a recipe book (I can’t post it because it’s copyright, but basically it just involved roasting the greens with garlic and olive oil and putting them in a blender). Beet greens are nice in stir fry. Greens also go well in pesto.

There are lots of different ways to eat greens, and a quick google of the type you’ve got will yield a lot of tasty recipes, and add more variety to your meal planning. Greens are great tasting and full of vitamins and minerals, so stop throwing them out!

Edible greens include: beets, carrots, radishes, and celery. If you’re unsure if a green is edible, just google it! If it’s edible, it will yield the info, plus tasty recipes.