When it comes to eating up your vegetables, big isn’t always better.
Micro greens — tiny versions of young vegetables and herbs such as coriander, basil, fennel, radish and oriental leaves — are the hot new foodie trend, partly because they’re packed with nutrients and partly for their clean yet strong flavours.
Micro greens are usually up to an inch long, and are harvested before they’re 14 days old.
Bigger isn't always better: Forget long herbs, the latest foodie trend is micro greensAccording to a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, they contain higher concentrations of vitamins and anti-ageing antioxidants than the fully-grown versions.
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Dietician Brooke Alpert says: ‘They are nutritionally dense, but don’t have the same amount of fibre that full-size vegetables do. So you don’t want to replace regular vegetables — just add them to your diet.’
Hot new trend: Micro greens are the hot new foodie trend, partly because they're packed with nutrients and partly for their clean yet strong flavoursThe seedlings are popular with chefs such as Raymond Blanc and Heston Blumenthal, and are often used as delicate garnishes (as the shoots don’t survive cooking well).
They tend to pack more of a flavoursome punch than the full-sized vegetables, and are far prettier and easier to place on a plate.
They can also be used in salads and omelettes, to flavour pasta or to top a pizza.
The shoots can be hard to find in shops as they’re difficult to keep fresh for long, but can be bought from specialist chef suppliers such as Pauleys, pauleys.co.uk.
However, the easiest option is to grow them yourself. Suttons, suttons.co.uk, does a £1.85 microgreen herbs seeds packet and promises your ‘microfield’ will be ready in ten days.