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Leaf vegetable

{{short description|Plant leaves eaten as a vegetable}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2019}}

{{Wiktionary}}

File:Spinach leaves.jpg leaves in a colander]]

File:Kale-Bundle.jpg]]

Leaf vegetables, also called leafy greens, vegetable greens, or simply greens, are plant leaves eaten as a vegetable, sometimes accompanied by tender petioles and shoots. Leaf vegetables eaten raw in a salad can be called salad greens, where as leaf vegetables eaten cooked can be called pot herbs.

Nearly one thousand species of plants with edible leaves are known. Leaf vegetables most often come from short-lived herbaceous plants, such as lettuce and spinach. Woody plants of various species also provide edible leaves.

The leaves of many fodder crops are also edible for humans, but are usually only eaten under famine conditions. Examples include alfalfa, clover, and most grasses, including wheat and barley. Food processing, such as drying and grinding into powder or pulping and pressing for juice, may involve these crop leaves in a diet.

Leaf vegetables contain many typical plant nutrients, but their vitamin K levels are particularly notable since they are photosynthetic tissues. Phylloquinone, the most common form of the vitamin, is directly involved in photosynthesis.

Nutrition

Spinach, as an example of a leaf vegetable, is low in calories and fat per calorie, and high in dietary fiber, vitamin C, pro-vitamin A carotenoids, folate, manganese and vitamin K.{{cite web |url=http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2626/2 |title=Nutrition facts for raw spinach per 100 g; USDA Nutrient Data SR-21 |year=2014 |access-date=15 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140920191548/http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2626/2 |archive-date=20 September 2014 |url-status=dead }}

The vitamin K content of leaf vegetables is particularly high since these are photosynthetic tissues, and phylloquinone is involved in photosynthesis.{{Cite book |doi=10.1007/978-1-4939-0606-2_15 |chapter=Prenylquinone Profiling in Whole Leaves and Chloroplast Subfractions |title=Plant Isoprenoids |volume=1153 |pages=213–26 |series=Methods in Molecular Biology |year=2014 |last1=Kessler |first1=F. |last2=Glauser |first2=G. |pmid=24777800 |isbn=978-1-4939-0605-5}} Accordingly, users of vitamin K antagonist medications, such as warfarin, must take special care to limit the consumption of leaf vegetables.{{Cite journal |doi=10.1111/jcpt.12104 |pmid=24383939 |title=A practical approach to minimize the interaction of dietary vitamin K with warfarin |journal=Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=56–60 |year=2014 |last1=Chang |first1=C. -H. |last2=Wang |first2=Y. -W. |last3=Yeh Liu |first3=P. -Y. |last4=Kao Yang |first4=Y. -H.|s2cid=206036115 |doi-access=free }}

Preparation

File:US Navy 081127-N-7571S-011 Culinary Specialist Seaman Freddie Green prepares collard greens for the crew's Thanksgiving dinner.jpg

If leaves are cooked for food, they may be referred to in the United States as boiled greens. Leaf vegetables may be stir-fried, stewed, steamed, or consumed raw. Leaf vegetables stewed with pork is a traditional dish in soul food and Southern U.S. cuisine. They are also commonly eaten in South Asian dishes such as saag. Leafy greens can be used to wrap other ingredients into an edible package like a tortilla. Many green leafy vegetables, such as lettuce or spinach, can also be eaten raw, for example, in sandwiches or salads. A green smoothie enables large quantities of raw leafy greens to be consumed by blending the leaves with fruit and water.

= Africa =

File:More Liponda.jpg

In certain countries of Africa, various species of nutritious amaranth are widely eaten boiled.National Research Council (U.S.), Board on Science and Technology for International Development, Lost Crops of Africa: Vegetables, pp. 6, 35f. [https://books.google.com/books?id=mllZm3CChGIC&pg=PA35|Google Books] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150320211644/http://books.google.com/books?id=mllZm3CChGIC&pg=PA35%7CGoogle |date=20 March 2015 }}

Celosia argentea var. argentea or "Lagos spinach" is one of the main boiled greens in West African cuisine.{{cite web |url=http://www.echonet.org/ |title=ECHO |access-date=6 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100510115947/http://www.echonet.org/ |archive-date=10 May 2010 |url-status=live }}

= Greece =

In Greek cuisine, khorta (χόρτα, literally 'greens') are a typical side dish, eaten hot or cold and usually seasoned with olive oil and lemon.{{cite web |url=http://greekfood.about.com/od/soupsstews/r/horta.htm |title=Horta Vrasta – Boiled Leafy Greens |author=Lynn Livanos Athan |work=About.com Food |access-date=6 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090220013035/http://greekfood.about.com/od/soupsstews/r/horta.htm |archive-date=20 February 2009 |url-status=live }}

At least 80 different kinds of greens are used, depending on the area and season, including black mustard, dandelion, wild sorrel, chicory, fennel, chard, kale, mallow, black nightshade, lamb's quarters, wild leeks, hoary mustard, charlock, smooth sow thistle and even the fresh leaves of the caper plant.

= Italy =

File:Pansotti alle noci 01.JPG filled with preboggion boiled greens and served with nut sauce]]

Preboggion, a mixture of different wild boiled leaf vegetables, is used in Ligurian cuisine to stuff ravioli and pansoti.{{cite web |url=http://www.cogornese.it/easycms/html/dallolioalprebuggion.html |title=dall'olio al preboggion |work=cogornese.it |access-date=6 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306170942/http://www.cogornese.it/easycms/html/dallolioalprebuggion.html |archive-date=6 March 2012 |url-status=live }} One of the main ingredients of preboggion are borage (Borago officinalis) leaves.

Preboggion is also sometimes added to minestrone soup and frittata.{{cite web |url=http://www.academiabarilla.com/italian-recipes/ricette-liguria/liguria-style-omelette-with-borage-sausage.aspx |title=Liguria-style omelette with borage and sausage |work=Italian recipes – Italian food culture – Academia Barilla |access-date=8 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819105432/http://www.academiabarilla.com/italian-recipes/ricette-liguria/liguria-style-omelette-with-borage-sausage.aspx |archive-date=19 August 2014 |url-status=live }}

= Poland =

Botwinka (or boćwinka) is a soup that features beet stems and leaves as one of its main ingredients. The word "botwinka" is the diminutive form of "botwina" which refers to leafy vegetables like chard and beet leaves.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

= United States =

In the cuisine of the Southern United States and traditional African-American cuisine, turnip, collard, kale, garden cress, dandelion, mustard, and pokeweed greens are commonly cooked and often served with pieces of ham or bacon. The boiling water, called potlikker, is used as broth. Water in which pokeweed has been prepared contains toxins that have been removed by boiling and should be discarded.{{cite book

|last=Thayer

|first=Samuel

|author-link=Samuel Thayer (author)

|date=2017

|title=Incredible Wild Edibles

|publisher=Forager's Harvest

|pages=273, 276

|isbn=978-0-9766266-2-6

|quote=Pokeweed must be prepared properly or it is dangerous. ... The only parts of poke to be eaten are the young shoots and tender stem tips, along with their immature, meristematic leaves. These must be boiled in an ample pot of water and then drained. Eating poke raw can cause serious poisoning. ... [A] man became ill from drinking water in which mature poke leaves had been boiled (Jaeckle and Freemon 1981).

}}

Sauteed escarole is a primary ingredient in the Italian-American dish Utica greens.

List of leaf vegetables

{{main|List of leaf vegetables}}

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Postharvest diseases

Postharvest diseases cause up to 50% losses of leaf vegetables. These are fungal, bacterial, and much less commonly viral. The most important remedy is temperature-controlled storage, although it is also important to prevent mechanical damage as this provides entryways for pathogens. Uncontaminated water for washing vegetables is of lesser but still significant importance.{{cite book | editor1=Lluís Palou | editor2= Joseph L. Smilanick | title=Postharvest pathology of fresh horticultural produce | publisher=CRC Press | publication-place=Boca Raton, FL | year=2020 | isbn=978-1-315-20918-0 | oclc=1104856309 | page=xviii+823 | first1=John | last1=Golding | first2=Len | last2=Tesoriero | first3=Rosalie | last3=Daniel | chapter=10 - Leafy Vegetables}} {{isbn|9781351805889}} {{isbn|9781351805896}} {{isbn|9781138630833}}

Common bacterial pathogens include: Xanthomonas campestris pv. vitians, Pseudomonas viridiflava, P. cichorii, and P. marginalis, P. syringae pv. aptata, X. campestris pv. campestris, X. campestris pv. raphani, P. syringae pv. maculicola, P. syringae pv. alisalensis, Pectobacterium spp. including Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. odoriferum and Pectobacterium aroidearum, Dickeya spp., Pseudomonas marginalis, and Pseudomonas viridiflava.

Common fungal pathogens include: Alternaria brassicicola, A. alternata, A. arborescens, A. tenuissima, A. japonica, Colletotrichum higginsianum, Colletotrichum dematium f. spinaciae, Microdochium panattonianum, Stemphylium botryosum, Cladosporium variabile, Cercospora beticola, C. lactucae-sativae, C. brassicicola, C. acetosella, Botrytis cinerea, Golovinomyces cichoracearum, Podosphaera fusca, Erysiphe cruciferarum, E. polygoni, E. heraclei, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, and S. minor.

Common oomycete pathogens include: Albugo occidentalis, A. ipomoeae-aquaticae, A. candida, Hyaloperonospora parasitica, Bremia lactucae, Peronospora effusa, and Peronospora farinosa f.sp. betae.

Fungicides such as prochloraz can be used to manage some of these.

Gallery

Starr 020803-0094 Centella asiatica.jpg|Gotukola (Centella asiatica)

Swiss Chard.jpg|Swiss chard

Ong choy water spinach.png|Water spinach

Կանաչի 3.JPG|Sabzi Khordan, an Iranian salad-like dish, here of mixed greens and radishes

See also

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References

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Category:Vegetables