Nutritious Salad Greens, Healthy Salad - Purslane, Mizuna and Tatsoi

Summer is a wonderful time for salad lovers. Fresh salad greens from gardens or markets are tasty and nutritious, and in summer the widest variety of greens is available. When you’re buying salad greens, don't restrict yourself to iceberg lettuce, which is nutritionally poor compared to darker greens. Also, in addition to visiting your local supermarket or corner store to buy salad greens, try to find farmers markets, organic food stores or Asian markets, which are good places to discover new types of plants to add to salads. Three interesting summer salad greens that can be found in non-traditional markets and sometimes in traditional produce markets too are purslane, mizuna and tatsoi. Mizuna and tatsoi may be available all year long in prepared salad mixes in some areas.

Dark salad greens are rich in beta carotene, which our bodies convert to vitamin A, and are great sources of folic acid (or folate) as well. They contain vitamins C and some of the B vitamins, and some leafy greens are good sources of Vitamins E and K. Salad greens contain important minerals like magnesium, potassium, calcium, iron, manganese and zinc, and also beneficial molecules known as phytonutrients or phytochemicals. It’s important to eat a small amount of a healthy oil with salad greens, since nutrients such as beta carotene and vitamins E and K are fat soluble. They need the presence of fat in order to be absorbed through the wall of our small intestine.

Purslane is a popular food in the Mediterranean region. It grows wild in the United States and Canada, and in many other parts of the world, where it's often regarded as a weed.

Purslane has thick, succulent stems and leaves and yellow flowers. It reproduces from stem pieces as well as seeds. Purslane has a great ability to survive drought and its seeds can survive in the soil for many years. It's a hard plant to eradicate - but some people who know about purslane's nutritional benefits don't want to eradicate it! (Remember to be absolutely certain of a plant's identification before you harvest and eat a wild plant, and don't eat plants from an area that has been sprayed with pesticide or is close to vehicle traffic.)

Cultivated varieties of purslane can be bought from garden stores. Some people think that cultivated purslane tastes better than the wild kind, while other people have the opposite opinion. Both the stems and the leaves of purslane can be eaten. They have a crunchy texture when raw and have a sour, tangy and slightly peppery taste.

Purslane is a good source of antioxidants, including beta carotene, vitamin C and vitamin E, and supplies us with calcium, magnesium and potassium. It also contains a significant amount of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which is a type of omega-3 fatty acid. ALA is an essential fatty acid - one that our bodies cannot make - and plays an important role in helping to prevent heart disease. In addition, inside the body ALA molecules are converted into eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), long chain omega-3 fatty acids found most abundantly in oily fish that have many beneficial health effects.

Researchers say that the body's conversion of ALA into EPA and DHA is not very efficient. In addition, since purslane plants are small, a lot of them would have have to be eaten to supply the body's daily ALA requirement. Flax seeds (also known as linseeds) are an excellent and more practical source of ALA, provided the flax seeds are ground just before they are eaten. Some companies sell cultured algae which are a good source of DHA for vegans.

Despite their small size, purslane plants are a very healthy salad ingredient and their nutrients add significantly to the body's daily intake.

Mizuna has saw-toothed leaves and a mild but peppery taste. It’s sometimes known as Japanese mustard. Young leaves from “Baby Mizuna” plants are more tender than older leaves. Mizuna is eaten raw and also steamed, boiled or added to soups and stir-fries. Boiling salad greens – or any green vegetable - is not the best way to cook them, though, since the water-soluble nutrients leach out of the leaves and enter the boiling water, which most people discard. Mizuna provides us with beta carotene, vitamin C, calcium and iron.

Tatsoi is a popular Asian salad green and has dark green, spoon-shaped leaves. The leaves and stems are usually eaten raw, but like other salad greens tatsoi can be steamed, boiled, added to soups near the end of cooking and used in stir-fries. Tatsoi has a mild flavor that resembles mustard. It contains a high level of beta carotene, vitamin C, vitamin K, calcium and potassium, as well as iron.

Nutritionists say that vegetables should make up a large proportion of our daily diet. However, many of us don’t eat enough vegetables. Salads are an excellent way to increase our vegetable and nutrient intake, especially if we eat a wide variety of salad greens, including the less common types such as purslane, mizuna and tatsoi. Different greens contain a different combination of nutrients, so eating many different kinds of salad greens will help ensure that we get a wide range of nutritional benefits.

I nearly always eat my salad greens raw and very rarely cook them. My favorite salad oils to enhance nutrient absorption and add an interesting taste are extra virgin olive oil and unrefined sesame oil, but there are many other healthy oils and oil combinations available in stores. I often add kelp or dulse flakes or granules to my salads. Kelp and dulse are good sources of iodine and have a much lower sodium content than table salt.

The addition of dried or fresh fruit to salads provides extra nutrients and a sweet taste that combines nicely with the sometimes sharp or bitter taste of the salad greens. Good dried fruits to add include raisins, currants or pieces of dates, figs, dried apricots and dried plums. (Don't overdo the quantity of dried fruit that you use in a salad, because dried fruit is calorie dense.) Good fresh fruits to mix with salad greens include sliced apples, pears, oranges, bananas, peaches, pineapple or cantaloupe, grapes, sweet cherries, and berries such as blueberries and strawberries.

A salad can be turned into a complete meal by adding a protein such as beans or soybean products, and the salad can be made more filling by adding other vegetables in addition to salad greens, such as tomatoes, onions, cabbage, carrots, cucumber, sliced beets, peppers, radishes, celery, and sprouts, or by adding nuts and seeds. Hard boiled eggs and cheese can also provide protein for someone who is a vegetarian rather than a vegan. Remember that eggs, cheese, nuts and seeds will add to the fat content of the salad, so you might want to use them instead of oil and not in addition to oil. Plain, fat free yogurt mixed with herbs, spices and a little lemon juice can be used as a salad dressing in place of oil.

Bags or plastic containers of pre-washed, dark salad greens like spinach, romaine lettuce, arugula (also called rocket), endive, chard, mizuna and sometimes tatsoi are available in many stores all year round. Although you will pay for the convenience of having prepared, packaged greens they are a good way to increase nutrition. It’s so easy to open the refrigerator, grab a handful of greens and add them to a sandwich or a meal.

One serious disadvantage of packaged salad greens, however, besides the cost and the use of plastic in the packaging, is the risk of Salmonella, E. coli or Listeria poisoning. In North America there have been several outbreaks of food poisoning in recent years which have been traced to bacteria growing on bagged salad greens. It's very important that prepared salads are produced safely, kept refrigerated continuously from the time that they are packaged to the time that they are eaten, and used well before their expiry date. Researchers also recommend that even when a apckaged salad has been pre-washed, it should be washed again before use to reduce the number of bacteria on the salad greens.

A green salad is quick and easy to make. All that has to be done is to wash the greens, remove any excess water, and then add a healthy oil. Green salads are very versatile, and additional ingredients can be added to the salad to change it from a snack, or from one course of a meal, into a complete meal. Salads are a great way to boost vegetable intake and are nutritious, as long as they contain fresh or carefully preserved ingredients. Making a salad gives someone a chance to be creative and to discover new and delicious flavor combinations. Salads can be made all year long, but summer is the best time for someone to discover salad greens that they've never eaten before, or that they've never eaten in their fresh form.