How to Add More Greens to Your Diet

As good for you as fresh greens are, it can still be tricky to work more of them into your diet. It's hard to get excited about greens when there's all kinds of other delicious food around. But there are ways to make greens delicious and exciting. Here are a few suggestions for using/eating more greens:

Stir fries are delicious ways to eat lots of healthy food. The beauty of a good stir fry is that you can totally customize it to what you like. Just grab your favorite vegetables, your favorite meat (or tofu, or other form of protein--or skip the meat/protein aspect altogether), and throw in some good greens (bok choy, cabbage, kale, etc.). Start with onions and garlic (if you like) and some olive oil, cooking on medium to medium/high heat. Then throw in the rest (of course, if you're using meat it should be cooked first and thrown in last), and cook it altogether on medium to medium/high heat, stirring regularly. When it's done put it over rice or pasta (brown rice is a great healthy choice, but since it takes so long to make, sometimes I use pasta or grains like quinoa or cous cous). Then pick your favorite sauce to put on top. Some people like a simple soy or teriyaki sauce. I personally like a good peanut sauce. But really, you can use whatever works for you. Anyway, once you put it all together you get a delicious meal that's also really healthy and usually pretty inexpensive too.

Another more obvious way to get more greens is to add more salads to you diet. Again, the trick is to customize your salads to you. It can be hard to get excited about a boring salad with iceberg lettuce (who needs it, anyway?) and a few meager vegetables, but there are so many different ways to make salads. Try mustard greens for a nice spicy, mustardy taste (they are delicious--especially if you're a mustard lover). They can be a little strong by themselves but mixed with other greens they impart a great flavor. Or get a spring mix, or use just baby spinach. Whatever you like really--but like I said earlier, skip the iceberg lettuce. It's pretty nutritionally devoid by comparison. Then add some other stuff to get you excited about the salad. Some examples are hard boiled eggs, smoked salmon, nuts or seeds, red onions, carrots, radishes, celery, mushrooms, shredded cheese, capers, fruit, spices...use your imagination. Finally, make it really delicious with a great dressing. You can always make your own (vinaigrette are simple--just balsamic vinegar, olive oil, a little bit of sugar, and if you want, a bit of mustard), or if you don't want to put forth that effort, just buy something good at the store. My personal favorites are the Annie's organic dressings. They're a bit more expensive but they're so good. Creating a salad that you really like can make you more excited about eating greens and more likely to do it more often. And if you create a hardy enough salad, it can be your main meal/entree. You can really add anything you like to a salad, so be creative.

Another thing is to simply steam or sautee some fresh greens. Kale is really good for you, and tastes great sauteed with soy sauce, garlic, and mushrooms...you can even add meat to the mix (I like to add tofurkey sausages--they're a delicious meat substitute). A friend of mine likes to cook up chopped brussel sprouts with walnuts, soy sauce, and a bit of brown sugar--those always turn out delicious, even for people who think they don't like brussel sprouts. Collard greens are another incredibly healthy food that you can steam or sautee.

Another thing that can help make greens more exciting is creating delicious sauces for them. Plain steamed greens might be kind of boring, but there are plenty of sauces that can make them more interesting. You can do something simple, like oil and vinegar (I recommend trying the truffle oil olive oil), or you can do something more complicated like a nutty dressing (I've made a dressing using sunflower seeds, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, water, and cilantro that turned out really good). If making sauces/dressings isn't your thing, there's always a huge selection of them at the store. Try out some different stuff to find out what you like.

One more tip-- a good way to make sure you eat lots of greens is to remind yourself to integrate them into foods you like. If you make yourself a sandwich, put some spinach on it. If you're making soup, toss some of your favorite greens in. It's not hard or time consuming to add a few fresh greens to basic meals, so don't forget to do it.