How to cut mustard greens

Use salt.

Salt is a friend to bitter greens, whether you plan to eat them raw or cooked. Mellow the bitter flavor with a sprinkle of salt on endive or radicchio, or include anchovies or cured meat (like bacon, pancetta, or proscuitto) along with mustard, beet, or collard greens.

To harvest mature mustard greens, simply snap off the outermost leaves with your thumb and forefinger, leaving the growing point intact. Picking them in this manner enables the plant to produce subsequent flushes of harvestable leaves, extending the harvest for many weeks.

Dump the leaves into the pot and stir them gently with a cooking spoon to submerse them. Boil them for about one to two minutes, until they’ve just begun wilting. Drain the mustard greens in a colander, emptying the saucepan of the water, and press down on the leaves gently to release retained water.

Harvest and Use

To harvest by the “cut and come again” method, wait until plants are 4 to 6 inches tall. Cut as much as you need, using scissors to shear off a patch of leaves about 1 to 2 inches above the soil level. Water well and fertilize lightly and plants will regrow for several more cuttings.

Yes, lettuce leaves will grow back after cutting but only if proper care and technique are used when cutting as all vegetable lettuce follow similar annual vegetable growth cycles.

Plants to Avoid

Never plant mustard greens near sunflower, soybeans and dried beans as all of these plants can suffer from the same disease problems, such as downy mildew, white rust, leaf spots and mosaic virus. These plants can pass diseases back and forth between each other, infecting your entire crop.

Mustard grows fast, so you can begin picking leaves in about 4 weeks, when the leaves are 6 to 8 inches long. Left alone, leaves reach their full size of 15 to 18 inches long in about 6 weeks.

Growing Mustard Greens

Once your seedlings are about three inches tall and have roots protruding from the rockwool cube, they’re ready to transplant. Keep in mind that, though it prefers full sun, mustard will tolerate some shade.

Mustard greens are quick and easy to grow in spring and fall. Mustard does not tolerate heat and bolts (runs to seed) when weather warms in late spring. Plant seeds 4 to 6 weeks before the last frost in spring and 6 to 8 weeks before the first frost in fall.

Mustard greens that grow in warm weather usually have very strong flavor, which gentles down considerably as nights become longer and cooler in the fall. Fortunately, mustard plants are very willing to regrow should you opt to lop off and compost huge handfuls of summer-grown mustard greens.

To have a continuous supply of fresh, tender mustard and turnip greens, make two or three plantings 10 days apart. Figure 4. Scatter 2 to 3 pounds of complete garden fertilizer such as 10-20-10 over each 100 square feet.

The best advice when confronted with bolting collards is to immediately harvest the leaves or attempt to slow the bolting by removing the flower stalks. Bolting does not mean your harvest is lost, although it can diminish the collard greens‘ flavor.

Mustard greens need 2 inches (5 cm.) of water a week. If you are not getting this much rainfall a week while growing mustards, then you can do additional watering.

Western mustards include curly-leaf or common mustard which has frilled oval leaves and mustard spinach which has large smooth dark green leaves that resemble spinach.

Can you freeze greens fresh or does it require blanching in order to freeze them? The recommended process to freeze greens is to blanch them first. However, it is not required. You can freeze your fresh greens and other vegetables without freezing them if you like.

Mustard greens boast high levels of vitamins K, A, and C, as well as folate and the mineral maganese. But unlike kale, the greens have a distinctly peppery taste, adding a piquant accent to salads, simple sautés, and the like.

And mustard greens holds its own by having the least amount of calories and slightly more protein and calcium than kale. All four types of greens are also rich in many other nutrients, including manganese, folate, copper, choline, magnesium, potassium and vitamins E, K, B2 and B6.

There are three types of mustard popular in the United States — curly-leafed, flat-leafed and mustard spinach — each with a number of different varieties.

Mustard greens are also known as curly or curled mustard, mustard spinach, and Indian mustard, or leaf mustard.

So what is the difference between mustard and collard greens? The main difference is that mustard greens are considered an herb while collard greens are part of the cabbage family. Their flavors are also vastly different, and they each contain various levels of vitamins and minerals.

Nutrition. Mustard greens contain many health-boosting antioxidants like beta carotene, which can protect your skin and lower risk factors of diabetes. The greens are also a great source of several B vitamins, including thiamine (B1,) niacin (B3,) and pyridoxine (B6.)