I’ve always disliked leafy greens. Makes it awkward to be a vegan at times!

However, after my looong stay in the hospital a few years ago, I went from merely disliking leafy greens to actively hating them! (I dunno – maybe when they gave me transfusions I received the blood of someone who hated green vegetables even more than I do?)

So now I say “Kale no!” to kale. And limp salad leaves without any crunch. And broccoli. And Brussels sprouts. And green beans. (I know, they’re not leafy, but they’re green.) And … everything, really, except for iceberg lettuce, slow simmered collards, and spinach (in some things).

The problem is, greens are incredibly good for you. Especially raw leafy ones. It’s recommended we eat at least two servings per day. How much is a serving? Harvard Medical School says because greens aren’t very dense, it actually takes about two cups of raw greens to make the nutritional equivalent of a one-cup serving of vegetables.

That’s a hella lot of greens!

So I am forever looking for less painful ways to eat them.

Microgreens to the rescue!

These tiny baby greens have an innocuous mouthfeel and flavors that range from nearly undetectable to spicy and peppery. And per the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, microgreens can contain 5X more vitamins than their mature plant counterparts!

I use them to replace lettuce – a big handful on a salad, in a wrap, on a burger.

My favorite way? A piece of toast slathered in hummus (or avocado) and topped with a generous serving of the more peppery microgreens.

Hopefully you don’t need a recipe for this, but if you do:

• Toast a slice of bread. (My recommendation is Dave’s Killer Bread. It comes in thick or thin slices, sprouted or seeded or whole grain. I adore the thin sliced White Bread Done Right – which actually is made from five whole grains – quinoa, spelt, rye, millet, and barley. But somehow it has the taste and texture of really good white bread. And no seeds to get stuck in your teeth, if that’s an issue. It makes absolutely killer PB&Js.)
• Spread the toast thickly with hummus.
• Heap as many microgreens over the hummus as you can without the microgreens flying off and making a mess while you eat. Sometimes it helps to take the palm of you hand and just smoosh the microgreens lightly, to help them stick to the hummus.

Because microgreens are so small, I look for ones that are pre-washed, grown without pesticides, and ideally farmed indoors. Fortunately, this tends to be the majority of microgreens.

If you also hate green vegetables, stick around. I’ll be sharing more ways to sneak them into their diet!

Do you regularly eat microgreens? Maybe even grow them yourself? If so, I’d love to hear your experiences!