Also known as Hakurei Turnips, Tokyo Turnips, or Japanese Turnips, this is the turnip that will actually make you excited when you hear the word turnip. Unlike storage turnips like the purple top turnip, this tender baby turnip is super sweet, supple, and absolutely delicious eaten raw as is or with a dip. And unlike their radish cousins, white salad turnips have completely hairless stems and greens that are much like mizuna or bok choy, perfect for stir-fries. From root to shoot, this is turnip is a treat!

Unlike a root, kohlrabi sits right on top of the soil and is the nlarged stem of a Brassica plant. It’s is a crisp and fresh treat, somewhere between a tender broccoli stem, a sweet white salad turnip, and crunchy jicama, and it is generally enjoyed raw. Slice and dip into hummus, chop finely into a slaw, plop them into a soup, roast them up, or make fries!

Sometime referred to as Rocket, arugula is known for having soft delicate greens with a mild-to-pungent spicy mustard flavor. As with all mustard greens, arugula makes for a wonderful salad balanced with goat cheese and fresh fruit, and the more lobey varieties have a beautiful leaf shape that looks gorgeous in salads.

This lime-green colored leaf with juicy white stems, also known as Tokyo Bekana, is somewhere between bok choy, mizuna mustard, and Chinese mustard, with a very mild sweet flavor. Young greens make for a glowing, delicate salad, and bunches make for a wonderful stir-fry.

Bok choy, known for its super thick juicy stems that are sweet and crisp when eaten raw and so juicy when stir-fried or served in soups. The super short squat little baby bok choy, or Shanghai Bok Choy, is often sautéed in halves and laid on top of white rice or being added into rich broths and bowls of ramen. Larger white-stemmed bok choys can be chopped into soups and stir-fries.

Also known as Chinese Broccoli, this green has full juicy stalks surrounded by broccoli-to-bok choy-like greens that sometimes has small broccoli florets on top depending on the season, perfect for stir-fries, soups, and sautées. Chinese Broccoli cross is the mother of broccolini, a similarly thick-stemmed broccoli with fat florets resulting from a cross with actual broccoli.

Also known as Gai choy or heading mustard, this green is somewhere between Bekana mustard, bok choy, and Napa Cabbage. It comes with a sweet juicy stem and mildly pepper greens, great lightly steamed or stir-fried or tossed into some hot broth.

This mizuna mustard variety is one of the deepest purple greens around, setting it apart from other red mizunas but with the same peppery punch. Absolutely gorgeous addition to salads full of creamy goat cheese and pears and a sweet tangy dressing to balance out the warmth of the greens. Stems are are also crisp and delicious, the entire bunch makes for a great quick stir-fry.

These super thin-stemmed, delicate, and somewhat frilly mustard greens are so tender with such a fresh crisp flavor. Green mizuna tends to be like a very mild to sweet arugula, whereas purple varieties tend to pack more of a peppery punch. Gorgeous addition to salads full of creamy goat cheese and pears and a sweet tangy dressing to balance out the warmth of the greens. Stems are are also crisp and delicious, the entire bunch makes for a great quick stir-fry.

This gorgeous purple-leaved green is sweet and tender like tatsoi or yu choy, not spicy like its other purple mustard cousins. Absolutely delicious and beautiful in stir-fries served with rice or tossed into hot broth for a quick wilt.

Although red mustard tends to have thick juicy stems much like a bok choy or tatsoi, its big deep red leaves have a strong peppery heat. Absolutely delicious in salads and stir-fries.

Much like bok choy but with slimmer stems and more robust leaves, tatsoi is a sweet and juicy green that is perfect in any stir-fry or soup.

Known in Spanish as berro, watercress is one of many quelites, wild and nutritious native greens that grow throughout the Americas. Watercress is a very delicate and mildly peppery green that wilts down very easily and is commonly added to soups and broths.

A super succulent mild green with supple sweet shoots that are somewhere right between broccoli and bok choy. Yu choy, also known as choy sum or yu choy sum, can be sautéed whole just with a little oil and salt, or with soy sauce or tamari, and eaten with rice, ramen, or a simple rich broth.

Photo - @yoshinoherbfarm

A favorite green common in Italy known as “Spigariello” is closer to being a thin leafy broccoli than it is a kale, but it is primarily a green. The twisty thin leaves are sweet and mild and can be harvested again and again throughout the fall and winter, no chopping needed. The added broccoli florets come springtime are a bonus!

From lighter Red Russian kale to to deep purple Medusa kale, these kales tend to have flatter leaves with frayed edges, gorgeous pink-to-purple midribs, and add a lovely color to frittatas, stir-fries, and scrambles.

Peacock kale, that bright pink and white kale that’s so showy it’s close to ornamental kales. But unlike those kales that are all style and no substance, Peacock kale is crisp and sweet with leaves that are thick like cabbage, chop it up finely in a slaw for a burst of sweetness and color in the middle of winter!

Lacinato kale (black / Italian / dinosaur kale) is everyone’s favorite, the top seller at farmers markets. The rumply leaves are savoyed like its savoy cabbage cousin and are perfect for holding cooking juices or salad dressings, with narrow rounded leaves are easy to chop straight down the bunch.

Green kale, or Curly Kale, is known for having super fluffy ruffled leaves that capture dressings and cooking juices making for a flavor bomb in your mouth. Perfect for kale chips or any dish that kales for kale.

Collards are incredibly hearty greens with rich and complex histories, strong enough to be a staple in hot climates and to be able to withstand harsh winters and come out sweeter on the other side. Cook these greens down a bit and they are melt-in-your-mouth delicious.