Are you looking for a new way to spruce up the meals you make for yourself and your families? You may want to consider adding true leaf microgreens. if you have kids, you know how hard it can be to find foods that they will eat. Studies show that children prefer meals that combine at least seven separate food components with at least six different colors. By contrast, adults are not as picky. They only want three kinds of food and three colors. Adding true leaf microgreens can add color and flavor to your food.
If you have not yet heard of true leaf microgreens, you can be certainly forgiven. They have not been around for all that long. First, you need to learn what true leaf microgeens are. A microgreen is a plant that has been harvested earlier in its lifecycle than other plants. There are hundreds of varieties and they are really just younger versions of vegetables and herbs that you are probably already familiar with. You can get microgreen basil, for instance. The flavors of microgreens differ greatly from their larger counterparts. The tastes can be sweet, bitter and spicy. Despite what many people may think, true leaf microgreens are not sprouts.
Microgreens first started popping up in meals in San Francisco, California in the 1980s. That is when chefs in the city began using them as garnishes and flavorings for the dishes they served. The tasty treats began gaining in their popularity in the 1990s. The young vegetables and herbs began making their way east.
There is good reason that most people haven’t heard about MicroGreens, and that is because they haven’t been around for that long! According to a local industry source, MicroGreens started appearing on chef menu’s in the 1980’s around San Francisco, California. The term “microgreen” was coined in 1998 and by then, the scrumptious delights could be found in states all over the country and even some foreign countries. That is pretty quick movement.
In the beginning of the true leaf migrogeen craze, there were only a few varieties available. The chefs in San Francisco had only beets, kale, basil, arugula and a mix that was called the “Rainbow Mix.” Now the number of true leaf microgreens has grown tremendously. Growers still grow all of the ones they did back then but have added radishes, broccoli, mustard, purple cabbage and a host of others.
In the early days, it was hard to find true leaf microgreens anywhere but in an upscale restaurant but that has changed. In 2010, petite microgreens began showing up in grocery stores around the country. Foodies and home chefs began using the true leaf microgreens to spruce up and give new flavors to the cuisine they make for themselves and their families.
If you go to the store to get your true leaf microgreens, there are some things you need to consider.
- Get the right quality: There is a quality scale for true leaf microgreens. They are given a number between one and five. The higher the number, the better the quality. You should always look for true leaf microgreens that are rated four or five. Three is generally considered to be unsellable.
- Wash your true leaf miscrogreens. Just like you would any produce that you bring home from the store, you need to thoroughly wash your true leaf microgreens. If you have a salad spinner, these are ideal to clean and then dry the microgreens. You can also use a paper towel to remove excess moisture from them. You do not want them to be soggy when you store them.
- Use them within a week of buying them. True leaf microgreens make great a addition to any meal but they are not means to be kept around a long time. You should wait to buy them until you know you are going to use them.
- Be careful storing them. Wrap the microgreens in paper towels, place that in a zip loock bag and put that in your refrigerator. The optimal temperature for storing true leaf microgreens is 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit.
Fresh and flavorful miscrogreens add color and fun to any meal.