13 Healthy Microgreens You Should Grow on Your Kitchen Counter This Year
Microgreens are a great way to add more leafy greens to your diet, and they are super easy to grow. You can grow these 15 tasty greens on your kitchen counter all year!
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Tasty and tender, growing microgreens is a great way to add more of the nutrients in leafy greens to your life. These small sprouted seeds pack a serious punch, often containing more nutrients than their full-grown versions. They are also exceptionally easy to grow quickly and in the comfort of your own kitchen.
There are so many ways to enjoy these tiny, delicious greens, from smoothies and pesto to salads and stir-fry. They blend into many of our favorite foods. They are a sustainable crop to grow indoors, as they require few natural resources.
Slightly different from sprouts, microgreens are more mature by about a week. It is at this point that they contain the highest concentration of nutrients they ever will. Let your greens grow to four or five inches tall for the most benefit.
I love a beautiful microgreen blend with different colors and flavors that create a delicious combination. To achieve this, select colorful varieties of these favorite veggies and get started!
Arugula ‘Astro’
Arugula is a favorite for adding to savory dishes. The crisp, peppery flavor is unique and distinctive. In its younger days, arugula is mild and has only a hint of that mature flavor, so it offers a nice balance.
Arugula is full of vitamin K, and it’s also a great source of calcium, folate, and vitamin C, among other nutrients. Eating it raw preserves the greatest amount of nutrition in your arugula. ‘Rocket’ has broader leaves and makes a great container variety.
Basil ‘Purple Petra’
Basil is a lovely aromatic herb with a sweet and spicy profile. It can be a bit slower growing, so expect to wait about 20 days to harvest this one. The nice thing about this is that you don’t have to harvest them all at once, so they last longer.
I love to use purple varieties of basil for this purpose. Those tiny purple shoots mixed with some tiny greens look gorgeous as a garnish or tossed into a salad. ‘Purple Petra’ is a stunning deep eggplant purple. It has a mild flavor with just a touch of herbaceous spice.
Sunflower
Sunflower seeds make a good, hearty green if you harvest them while they are young. Their bittersweet essence is delicious on sandwiches, and the texture holds its own where finer greens may blend in. Their thick stems and sturdy leaves have a nice crunch.
When it comes to nutrition, these are serious contenders for the top of the list. Sunflower microgreens contain a host of vitamins and minerals, including Vitamins A, C, and B. They are also a great source of iron, magnesium, and calcium, and they contain all nine amino acids, making them a complete protein!
Beets ‘Touchstone Gold’
Beets have a sweet and earthy flavor. If you’ve never eaten this part of the plant, you’ve got to try it! They have a great texture when sauteed. The baby greens have that same tasty essence, so they make excellent microgreens.
A wonderful thing about beets is that their leaves are green, but the shoots match the color of the root. Gorgeous reds and oranges add variety and interest to your culinary creations. ‘Touchstone Gold’ will produce vibrant orange stems that look amazing with purple basil and something green.
Cilantro
Cilantro is a controversial herb, as some folks detect the aldehydes it contains, which can give it a soapy taste. For the rest of us, it’s a zesty green with a flavor and texture similar to parsley.
The microgreens have fine, feathery leaves and all the taste of fully grown cilantro. They make a perfect topping for avocado toast, or try mixing these into your homemade salsa for a delicate texture with great taste.
Mustard ‘Mizuna’
Mustard greens are often overlooked, and for some, they may be more flavorful than preferred. If you like the spice though, the young greens are tender and one of the most flavorful of the microgreens. They are brassicas, so they pack a serious nutrient punch.
‘Mizuna’ mustard has fine, feathery leaves and a refined flavor. Mix it with other, more colorful varieties like ‘Red Giant’ for an aesthetically pleasing combination. They are crunchy and bold and go well with savory dishes.
Endive ‘Olesh Tres Fine’
Endive has a crisp, astringent taste when eaten raw and mellows to a nutty, warm flavor when you cook it. It’s related to chicory, which also makes good microgreens. It can be difficult to grow it to maturity, but this is a great way to enjoy the flavor and nutritional benefits.
Endives can be pale green or red, and their young shoots reflect these shades. ‘Olesh Tres Fine’ has a milder-than-usual flavor and a gorgeous, lacy appearance.
Bok Choi ‘Toy Choy’
Bok choi, or pak choi, are easy microgreens for beginners. It grows quickly and is ready to harvest in as few as ten days. They have pleasant-tasting, crisp, and crunchy stems, and you can grow them in regular potting soil. There’s no need to invest in more costly materials for these.
‘Toy Choy’ is a miniature variety with glossy, deep green leaves and tender stems. It’s perfect for growing in containers as microgreens, or allow it to mature to five inches tall for a crunchy, cabbage-like texture.
Cabbage ‘Red Acre’
Cabbage is another vegetable that makes excellent microgreens. Red cabbage is particularly pretty, as the shoots have a lovely reddish-purple color. They grow exceptionally fast and are easy to get started with, so they’re great for beginners.
Red cabbage varieties contain tons of polyphenols and glucosinates, more than mature plants. These are thought to reduce inflammation and lower cholesterol levels. ‘Red Acre’ is especially deep purple and has a delicious, sweet flavor. Eat these within five days of harvesting as they grow fast and degrade just as quickly.
Purple Kohlrabi
Kohlrabi are members of the Brassica family, along with broccoli, cabbage, and many others. Brassicas typically make good microgreens in pretty colors with plenty of flavor. This one has sweetness with undertones of turnip and broccoli.
These greens have a slightly spicy finish, and they are ready to harvest in an incredibly short time. You will have a harvest in right around one week. The pretty purple shoots are beautiful as well as tasty.
Swiss Chard ‘Celebration’
Swiss chard is colorful and delicious with an earthy, sweet flavor not unlike beets. The microgreens are a nutritional powerhouse of vitamins A, B, and C and tons of gut-healthy fiber.
I love the ‘Celebration’ variety of chard for microgreens and a mature vegetable. The variety of colors comes through from the very start, in shades of red, orange, yellow, and white. It’s stunning and makes an incredible garnish or salad topping.
Chia
You’ve heard of chia seeds and their awesome nutritional value, but did you know that they make great microgreens, too? Chia is a great source of amino acids, omega oils, and protein. They are easy to grow and great for beginners. Remember the Chia Pet?
Chia seeds are tiny, so keep that in mind when you decide how many to plant. One tablespoon will cover a shocking 50 square inches! They are flexible about growing media and containers, just as long as there is drainage and you keep them moist.
Kale ‘Dazzling Blue’
Kale is amazingly nutrient-dense, packing tons of vitamins A, B, C, E, and K into its leaves. It’s also rich in minerals like iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium, zinc, and more! According to the USDA, microgreens contain up to 40 times more nutrients by weight when compared to mature leaves.
‘Dazzling Blue’ has beautiful purple stems and blue-green leaves. Cool temperatures will bring out more of the purple hues. These are great for eating raw or adding to your favorite stir-fry.
