Leaf vegetable

Leaf vegetables, also called leafy greens, vegetable greens, or simply greens, are plant leaves eaten as a vegetable, sometimes accompanied by their petioles and shoots, if tender. Leaf vegetables eaten raw in a salad can be called salad greens, whereas leaf vegetables eaten cooked can be called pot herbs.

Nearly one thousand species of plants with edible leaves are known. Leaf vegetables most often come from short-lived herbaceous plants, such as lettuce and spinach. Woody plants of various species also provide edible leaves.

The leaves of many fodder crops are also edible for humans, but are usually only eaten under famine conditions. Examples include alfalfa, clover, and most grasses, including wheat and barley. Food processing, such as drying and grinding into powder or pulping and pressing for juice, may involve these crop leaves in a diet.

Leaf vegetables contain many typical plant nutrients, but their vitamin K levels are particularly notable since they are photosynthetic tissues. Phylloquinone, the most common form of the vitamin, is directly involved in photosynthesis.

Spinach, as an example of a leaf vegetable, is low in calories and fat per calorie, and high in dietary fiber, vitamin C, pro-vitamin A carotenoids, folate, manganese and vitamin K.

The vitamin K content of leaf vegetables is particularly high since these are photosynthetic tissues, and phylloquinone is involved in photosynthesis. Accordingly, users of vitamin K antagonist medications, such as warfarin, must take special care to limit the consumption of leaf vegetables.

If leaves are cooked for food, they may be referred to in the United States as boiled greens. Leaf vegetables may be stir-fried, stewed, steamed, or consumed raw. Leaf vegetables stewed with pork is a traditional dish in soul food and Southern U.S. cuisine. They are also commonly eaten in South Asian dishes such as saag. Leafy greens can be used to wrap other ingredients into an edible package like a tortilla. Many green leafy vegetables, such as lettuce or spinach, can also be eaten raw, for example, in sandwiches or salads. A green smoothie enables large quantities of raw leafy greens to be consumed by blending the leaves with fruit and water.

In certain countries of Africa, various species of nutritious amaranth are widely eaten boiled.