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Some greens on a wooden background.

Produce 101: Tender Greens

Looking to add more volume, flavor, and texture to your plate? Consider adding greens. But not just any greens–tender greens.

Produce 101: Tender Greens

What are tender greens? Well, they aren’t lettuces or braising greens, and they are typically used raw or wilted. They range in flavor from mild-almost-neutral, to pungent, spicy, or peppery.

 

Baby spinach leaves in a bowl on a wooden background.
The tender leaves of baby spinach are perfect for raw applications like salads.

 

Spinach is a Tender Green

Spinach is a great example of a tender green. In fact, spinach is the only tender green that has a USDA spec.

Spinach Grades

  • U.S. Extra #1
  • U.S. #1
  • U.S. Commercial

Grades are based mainly on color and uniformity of shape, but also importantly: mechanical damage. You may wonder what that is, and really, it’s just what it sounds like.

During the harvest, the harvesting blades may be a little dull or the leaf may be a little crispy, or as it’s being washed and cooled in the post-harvest operation, the leaves can get damaged. It doesn’t affect the quality and flavor, but it does decrease and diminish the shelf-life just a little bit. If you are looking to use whole leaves, set these aside, they can still be used in a sauce or cooked.

Spinach Comes in Two Main Forms

We have the full-size spinach image below, and the baby spinach image above.

 

Spinach leaves in a wooden bowl and arranged on a wooden table.
As the spinach grows past the baby stage, the stems get thicker and the flavor is more pronounced. This spinach is ideal for cooking.

 

The differentiator between the two clearly is the size.

  • Baby spinach is perfect for your salads. It is tender, the stems are delicate, and they can be used where a more tender texture is preferred.
  • Full-size spinach is typically cooked—you can cook it really fast with a little olive oil, add handfuls to soup, or it can be braised.

Full-sized spinach can be used raw, but it really shines better cooked. Full-size spinach sizes can range dependent on when it is harvested. You may see it just past the baby stage, all the way to fully mature with bunched stems.

 

Dan looking at the root plug on some Mache lettuce.
Mache is a also called Lamb’s Lettuce or Corn Salad. It is one of the more delicate tender greens.

Another Type of Tender Green: Mache

We will go from mild to most flavorful, starting with Mache, which is also called Lamb’s Lettuce or Corn Salad. Mache is incredibly tender with soft, velvety leaves, and as such it is best used raw. You don’t often put an undressed green on a plate, so toss it with a lightly flavored oil or a mild vinaigrette, salt, and pepper. If you use a heavier dressing, it might not stand up on the plate since the leaves are so delicate.

Mache is a very old green. It is almost neutral flavored, it goes really well with delicately-flavored proteins or vegetables. More often than not, it comes attached to its root bulb in a plug (as seen in the picture above). This increases the shelf-life and holds that flavor and color a little bit longer. All you need to do it right before you use it, is snip it off, and you are ready to go.

 

Some arugula pesto in a wooden bowl with some garlic cloves and arugula leaves arranged on a table.
Arugula is best used raw or slightly wilted. It can also be pureed into sauces or made into an alternative pesto.

A Robust Flavored Tender Green: Arugula

Next, we have arugula, it has a little peppery bite to it at the end. It’s great wilted, it really shines as a center of the plate green item, not necessarily just as a salad. Consider setting your grilled fish on top of raw, vinaigrette dressed arugula. The residual heat will wilt it down just a little bit.

 

A cooked salmon filet with some lemon wedges sitting on top of some wilted greens.
Pictured here is salmon with wilted arugula and mache.

 

It also makes a wonderful pesto. Try it if you’ve got some and you are a little long on your arugula, throw it in your blender with a little olive oil, some parmesan cheese or Grana Padano cheese, pine nuts, walnuts–even pecans will work. Grind it up, blend it, you’ve got a great new flavorful pesto to use.

 

A close up of some green watercress and a handwritten tag that says "watercress."
Watercress adds a peppery bite to your salads or sandwiches.

Watercress and Upland Cress

We have the familiar watercress  (pictured above). It’s a little spicier than arugula, and then we have watercress’ close cousin, Upland cress pictured below.

 

A bunch of "Upland Cress" on a wooden board on a wooden table.
Upland Cress is usually seen with the root plug attached, which allows for a longer shelf-life.

 

These two greens are usually used raw and are known for adding a peppery bite to dishes.

Upland cress, much like Mache, typically comes on the root plug (pictured above). It’s a little more vibrantly flavored from the watercress, it’s got more of a punch and an almost horseradish-like finish and works wonderfully with grilled meats and seafood.

 

A close up of a bag of mixed red and green baby kale leaves.
Pictured here is a mix of red and green baby kale.

Baby Kale Mix is a Terrific Tender Green

Last but certainly not least for Produce 101: Tender Greens, one of the hot newer items is baby kale mix. Kale is recognized as a superfood for its nutrient qualities. Baby kale would be perfect as an alternative to a traditional Caesar salad. It’s just tender enough that you can eat it raw, but it has enough bite and enough crunch that it adds a layer of texture to your traditional Caesar salad.

Produce 101: Tender Greens — Storage and Handling

When storing tender greens, you want to keep them cold. Don’t let them get below 32°F, that’s sort of the magic number, if they freeze, they are ruined. The cell walls rupture and break, the leaves break down, they just don’t hold up.

 

An illustration of a walk in cooler with numbers showing the different cooling zones.
The coolest part is near the fan (1), and the warmest is by the door (3).

 

Keep your tender greens dry and wash them just before using them. They don’t like to sit damp. So keep them in the back of your cooler, covered.  You don’t want them to get dehydrated.

Don’t stack heavy items on top, as they are susceptible to bruising and damage. Only take out what you need to use at each time. Minimize the amount of times you touch the leaves, because every time you touch them, you run the risk of bruising.

 

Watch Dan go over the basics of tender greens in Produce 101: Tender Greens.

 

 

Contact your Sales Consultant about adding tender greens to your next order. If you are not a customer, find out how to become one today!

Content provided by Chef Daniel Snowden, the Director of Culinary Development for FreshPoint Central Florida. He has been in the produce industry almost 20 years and loves getting geeky about food. Additional contributions by Lisa Brizard.

 

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