Leafy Greens

You may know them as leafy greens or technically leafy purples and reds as leaf vegetables can come in many different colours. With availability year round, these superfoods have amazing nutritional benefits and are highly thought of in the world of vegetables. So lettuce tell you more!

Leafy veg

What Are Leaf Vegetables?!

Leaf are edible plant leaves eaten as vegetables such as spinach, lettuce, rocket and many brassicas like kale and pak choi. Lettuce, rocket and cress are usually eaten raw, whereas, kale, spinach and pak choi are most commonly eaten cooked. All leaf veg are crisp in texture when raw and soften/ wilt when cooked.

Nutritional Benefits Of Leaf Vegetables

All leaf greens have great nutritional benefits many for different reasons and are considered nutrient dense, in particular kale, spinach and chard. This is because they are rich in vitamins A, C, and K, and also contain sources of carotenoids, magnesium, potassium, and calcium which support the immune system, reduce tiredness and fatigue, help maintain a healthy blood pressure and protect cells from oxidative stress. Kale and spinach are perceived as some of the most nutritiously beneficial of all vegetables!

Lettuce is high in antioxidants, which can help eliminate free radicals, support the immune system, and protect against some types of cancer and rocket provides glucosinolates, which also helps to protect against cancer.

Seasonality Of Leafy Greens

As leaf covers a wide variety of different vegetables, there is always a leafy green available year round. Prime season in the UK is mid-May to mid-October, where the majority of leaf vegetables are in season such as lettuce. In spring and summer, spinach and spring greens are in season, whilst kale is available in the autumn and winter months. Watercress is in season for 10 months of the year from March to December, similarly rocket and chard also have lengthy seasons, rocket from April to October and chard from June to December.

How To Store Leafy Greens

The key to keeping leaf vegetables crisp is ventilation and moisture. Many believe removing the air from packaging of leaf veg will prevent oxidisation from wilting the leaves. Oxidisation will brown the leaves, however, will not affect the crispness. Ready to eat leaf is usually already washed and bagged, therefore can go straight into the fridge as is. With a whole leaf vegetable, wrap in a damp paper towel and store in a gastro tray with loosely fitted lid and then keep it in the fridge.

How To Prepare Leafy Greens

With cut leaf vegetables or individual leaves, submerge in cold water and gently swirl them around then dry them. The best way to dry the leaves is a salad spinner, but if you don’t have one to have them lightly shake dry using a colander. There are many options to get leaf vegetables bagged and pre-cut, yet many can come uncut such as, cress or heads of lettuce and pak choi. To cut cress that is still potted you can use scissors and trim close to the roots, similarly with pak choi and lettuce, using a vegetable knife, cut close to root to get most of the leaf. Pak choi leaves are usually kept whole, but lettuce can be prepared in a variety of ways chopped, shredded and teared are most common.

How To Determine The Quality Of Leafy Greens

With leaf veg there are two main indicators of quality; colour and crispness. Leaf veg typically browns due to too much moisture during storage, such as leaving leaf veg in a package with poor ventilation resulting in condensation. This is why storage is essential to keeping up the quality of leaf veg. The browning of leaves is not harmful, but can be unsightly and unappetising, so you can cut the brown spots out or dis-guard of brown leaves. Leaf vegetables should be crisp and tender, wilting is a sign that the vegetable is past best and will not give your dish the best texture. Wilting is only desirable when leaf vegetables are cooked such as spinach or pak choi.

How To Incorporate Leafy Greens Into Your Menu

Raw leafy greens are great in salads, healthy bowls are great as an accompaniment to protein, and they can also be added to sandwiches, wraps and as a garnish on pizza. For using leaf vegetables cooked, they are perfect for soups and stir-fries especially for dishes of Asian cuisine. Sauces, smoothies, juices and pesto are also other great ways of including nutritional leaf vegetables in your menu.

Where Do Our Leafy Greens Grow?!

We truly value UK farming and try to support UK farmers as much as possible, as and when produce we require is in season. As we offer many leaf vegetables we have a large variety of different suppliers. Our UK suppliers of bagged salads, cress, watercress and kale are from Lancashire, whereas, our baby leaf rocket and spinach are from Worcestershire. Our overseas suppliers for cos, gem, iceberg and fancy lettuce are situated in Murcia, Spain.

Types & Varieties Of Leaves

Lettuce

Lettuce is a raw vegetable most popular in salads. There are countless varieties of lettuce such as romaine, iceberg, baby gem and radicchio, so it’s hard to pinpoint an exact taste as each type has a different flavour. Lettuce is crisp and can be green, red or purple, it’s often soft and buttery, but can have a mild peppery taste.

Spinach

Spinach is a dark green leaf commonly used as a salad ingredient or lettuce substitute, but is famous in the Indian side dish saag and often used when scrambling egg to add additional nutrients. When cooked it wilts considerably and loses the tender crunch it has when eaten raw and the flavour is mildly sweet and grassy.
Ratte Potato

Rocket

Rocket is of Mediterranean origin and often mistaken as lettuce, but is actually part of the brassica family and closely related to mustard. It’s commonly eaten raw and used in salads or as a topping on pasta dishes and pizza. It’s peppery almost spicy taste is complimented by acidic flavours such as citrus and balsamic vinegar.

Watercress

Watercress, often just called cress is a leafy green that grows in natural spring water. It’s most commonly used as a garnish, but is also popular in the English sandwich filling egg and cress. Watercress has a light, peppery taste similar to mustard.
Salad Potato

Kale

Kale is typically a deep green curly leaf with a strong earthy taste and is loved by healthy lifestyle fanatics as an ingredient in green juices because of its nutritional benefits. It’s also commonly dried to produce kale chips a healthy substitute to crisps, but is also great creamed, or drizzled with garlic butter for a more indulgent side dish.

Pak Choi

Pak Choi aka Bok Choi is a Chinese celery cabbage with a chunky white stalk and deep green leaves and is most commonly a side dish or ramen ingredient in Asian cuisine. Its mainstream popularity in the UK has risen due to popular restaurant chains and is typically served boiled or stir-fried.

Our Leafy Greens

We stock all sorts of leafy greens! Here you can find some of the varieties of leaf we stock, when available, including mixed leaf. Please contact our team to discuss your requirements, or login to our online ordering or app to place your order for leaves.

Lettuce & Chicory

Lettuce Flat

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Lettuce & Chicory

Lettuce Iceburg

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Lettuce & Chicory

Fancy Leaf Lettuce Endive

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Lettuce & Chicory

Fancy Leaf Lettuce Green Batavia

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Lettuce & Chicory

Fancy Leaf Lettuce Lambs

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Lettuce & Chicory

Fancy Leaf Lettuce Lollo Bianda

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Lettuce & Chicory

Fancy Leaf Lettuce Little Gem

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Cabbages, Spinach, Kale & Spring Greens

Spinach Baby

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Herbs & Cresses

Watercress

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Oriental

Pak Choi

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Leafy Green Recipes

Here’s some delicious recipe inspiration featuring leaves for your menu.

Recipe

Chump Of Lamb, Harissa Crushed Potatoes & With Minted Peas & Lettuce In A Smoked Butter

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Recipe

ChalkStream® trout, Wakame Seaweed Salad, Ponzu & Chinese Leaf

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Recipe

ChalkStream® Trout Fillets, Chorizo, Peas, Grilled Little Gem & Pea Shoots Finished With Garden Pesto

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