Well, I love all greens, but if you're looking for non-bitter, non peppery greens, try spinach, chard, collards. Kale is neither bitter nor peppery, but is "strong", so you may have to educate your palate before you try it. Many people who don't like greens like them tossed into soups, stews and bean dishes. Do this just before you serve the dish so they don't overcook.

All the cultivated greens have been bred over countless generations for relatively mild flavor as compared to their un-cultivated counterparts. Lettuce, for example, was derived from a dandelion-like origin. Your dislike of greens is due to extremely low exposure to eating them, end of story. It's not them, it's you.

pnbrown, no matter what the reason, some people like the flavor and others don't.

I don't like "peppery" greens either. Can't stand arugula. I didn't like nasturtiums or garden cress either. I'm on a similar quest as the OP. I've found a few greens I like. I love swiss chard and beet greens. They aren't at all peppery, but they're not the typical sweet lettuce flavor either. To me they taste like mild beets - do you like beets? Salad burnet was okay for me, but didn't grow well. I haven't tried Mache. Mizuna was on the peppery side, so you may not like it, but it's different than the others mentioned because it tastes like mustard - the others have a weird floral soapy taste I can't stand. To me, the mustard flavor is okay. Sorrel is very very sour - too sour for me. Purslane is also mildly sour, but I love it as a salad topping. Chickweed is fantastic - very sweet and very green tasting. Baby collard greens are really good too - like mild broccoli. I have plans to try out malabar spinach this summer...

Hope that helps a little.

I don't much care for greens if they're NOT peppery and a bit bitter. There's such incredible variation in the bite. Love all of the cresses, mustards, endives and arugulas. Mache is vaguely citrusy. I wouldn't say the flavor is particularly notable, but the texture is lovely, especially in a mixed salad.

I'm just surprised that dandelion greens are labled as bad tasting while belgian endive is labled as good... To me they are both bitter. Which I happen to like. Mache is very neutral in flavor. Maybe some of the asian choys like bok choy and pak choy, misome and tatsoi would be palatable to the OP. I second glib in saying that greens are sweeter after frost, and the ones from California don't ever recieve that. So now, where's the inlaw's house? I'll go enjoy dandelion greens salad with them!

Love arugula and have never found it bitter. Nutty and peppery yes, but not bitter.

Salad burnet tastes like cucumber. It's only bitter as it goes to seed.

I love cooked dandelion greens, but not raw. I've had several "messes" so far this spring. I've got some poke "salat" on the stove now, love that stuff too!

The only raw greens I like are, cabbage, brussel sprouts, and lettuce. Lettuce is good when cooked too, we call it "killed lettuce".

One way, if you do not want the bittery, peppery tasting greens is to go with the tiny thumb sized baby plants.

Mache, otherwise known as corn salad. It's ranked as one of the mildest greens you can possibly eat. Look into it and give it a try. I usually plant mine for a fall harvest.

Stevia.

Yes, like the sugar substitute you see at the grocery store Stevia. It grows as a short bush, produces roughly spinach sized leaves, and they're very sweet. Freshly picked leaves get sweeter the longer you chew on them (they would be awesome in a salad with chopped fruit), while wilted leaves are just instant candy in your mouth.

Plus, its heat stable. Means you can dry it to make a sugar substitute powder, or cook with it and it stays just as sweet.

I'm growing three bushes of it this year, and I'll be growing these things every year hereafter.

Also going to try to grow tea plants this year, so with a little luck I'll be making my own sweet tea blend with dried tea and stevia leaves. No mussing about with sugar, just pour in water and instant sweet tea.

Thanks for the info folks, and I'm sure I did come off sounding ignorant as far as leafy veggies are concerned. All the ones I've tried have come from Ca., so maybe that explains the often excessive bitterness. I grew leaf lettuce for the 1st time last year, not knowing anything about growing it, and I planted the seeds in mid-May, and by the time they started growing, we were into one of the hottest summers on record, and they tasted extremely bitter!

So heat must be the reason that many greens taste bitter.

To sunnibel7: The endive I'm talking about is Belgian endive, which is a small, tightly packed bundle of mostly white with green, and thick layers that you strip off. They are very crunchy and never bitter from my experience, and have no off flavor at all. They are great for dipping. They have the perfect consistency and crunch. They are expensive and sometimes hard to find.

To Edymnion: I've never seen a Stevia plant, and was unaware you could buy and grow them, and more unaware the leaves could be eaten like greens. I'll have to look into that!

To Natal: I was working at a customer's home today, and I spoke to his neighbor about his garden, and pointed out Arugula that had overwintered from last season, and I picked a lower leaf and ate it, and it's initial flavor was almost buttery, but then it had a very strongly bitter aftertaste. Maybe its too old.....

I'm in CA. Greens will get bitter in the heat. I love leafy greens but also don't care for the really bitter ones like dandelion and radicchio. My fav's are chard, kale, beet greens, collards and mustard. Good luck finding one you like but yes, they do need to be grown in cool whether to be sweet...otherwise even the ones I listed above will be bitter.

belgian endives or witloof are grown during the summer, the roots harvested and forced in darkness in the winter. A pita if you ask me, but if you like them it could save you a bunch of money, and give you something "gardeny" to do when it`s cold out. Possibly another one to try is red leaf vegetable amaranth. Tastes sort of spinichy.

HighlanderNorth, it would be best to buy a stevia plant. The seeds usually have low germination rates. And stevia leaves are very very sweet. It may not do very well in a normal garden salad but would be awesome in a fruit salad!

Our family prefers other greens to arugula as well. The peppery taste just isn't very appetizing.

You could also consider a lemony tasting alternative like sorrel. A small amount goes a long way and less salad dressing is usually needed to add flavor.

I've heard Belgian endive is very good too but I have yet to try growing it from seed. Please let us know how well it grows in your garden!

Another good, mild one for summer greens is Malabar spinach. I don't grow it now, but I ate it 2-3 times a week when living in Brazil.

I would suggest going to your local farmers market or organic (locally grown) produce store. Ask their opinion and ask for a sample and ask how to cook it!
Take a small amount home and give it a try! The produce guys where I shop/work are very helpful! They know where everything is grown if it's not grown locally, and in most cases, how to cook and flavor it! One of the guys even farms 26 acres(in his spare time) after working 8 hours, and going to school!
If they're no help, ask your neighbors who garden. If THAT doesn't work, try a different type of green from the organic store each week and research how best to cook it.
I'm taking all of the above steps myself. Nancy

I adore malabar spinach. I've eaten it since I was a child and I've grown it every year since I moved into my new place. As a bonus, it loves the heat so you can grow it during the height of summer and not worry about it ever getting bitter.

That said, I do love all greens -- the mild ones, the peppery ones. The stronger (though I guess you'd call them bitter) ones take some getting used to but I like them too for variety.

I knew what was meant by belgain endive, it just goes to show that we don't all have the same tastebuds. To me, even the nice blanched belgain endive has a distinct bitter tone. I enjoy the duality of its bittness and sweetness.

By the way were you looking for greens for eating raw or eating cooked? Because different methods of preparing cooked greens can make them more palatable too. Blanching before sauteing can tone down the flavor on a lot of them. Cheers!

Some people are just more sensitive to bitter flavors than others. It doesn't have anything to do with how used to bitter or "peppery" greens you are. It's in your genes.

I'm with the OP. Most of the greens that I have tried are just way too bitter. Whether it's arugula, endive, radicchio, dandelion greens, or some mustards that were in a mesclun mix I grew. I couldn't eat them.

Rodney

Well, I eat the raw dandelion leaves as I weed, so you can tell which side of the bitter-tastes-bad, bitter-tastes-good line I'm on! That being said, mache is delicious and very mild. I also think young loose lettuces such as red leaf are very mild.

The fact that everyone's tastes are different is great. For example, a while back I went to an Italian restaurant with some friends. They all hated their side dishes of grilled endive and radicchio -- way too bitter -- and laughed at me as I snarfed down every single bite. Mmmmm, bitter!

I don't like 99% of leaves as food, I eat them because they are good for me and as placeholders for the peas, carrots, beets, beans, avocado or hundreds of other plant parts I actually like to eat with dressings. Can't remember ever craving lettuce or spinach or radicchio or arugula, they're just there -- don't love 'em, don't hate 'em. Cooked cabbage I crave all the time, but its raw form, not so much.

If you want less bitter greens, pick them when they are baby greens, about 3 to 6 inches. If you wait all year to pick them, they are bound to be bitter.

I grow leaf collards & harvest them one leaf at a time, not cutting the whole plant, like the market does.
I grow the same plant for 3-4 years & eat them all summer & like the taste.
Poke okay, but with so much greens in the garden, I do not harvest it.

I began making my own egg-drop soup. Then I started adding greens to it. Sometimes I was down to the greens that I didn't like but, added them to the soup anyway. I think they converted me by being much better in the soup which, in turn, made them more desirable prepared other ways.

Here in Cajun Country we cook just about any green by sauteeing it with a lot of garlic, some onion and colored bell pepper and then, throw in a piece of pickled pork or ham hock and chow down. Try this with any greens you may not be crazy about.

I love clear fish soup. Adding greens to the Japanese clear soup has also changed my opinion of some greens.

It's not like I am forcing myself to eat something that is really not very appatizing. These greens are now a delight for me.

Of course the mustards and related cultivars are very strong-flavored. Lettuces are probably the mildest of greens, hence we in the West - who tend to not like strong-flavored greens - eat them raw for the most part - some places they are mostly cooked. The brassica family has a lot of variation in flavor and shape. The chard family varies from spinach and 'spinach-chard' to the beet greens. Closely related is amaranth and lamb's quarters and many other edible weeds, generally not bitter-tasting in comparison to the mustard and brassica family weeds.

Yeah, I was mainly speaking of the flavor of raw leafy greens in the OP, but cooking can alleviate some off flavors.

What I forgot to mention is spinach. I used to think I hated spinach, because of the way my Mom cooked it. She wasnt a very good cook, and there were many foods that I thought I hated until I grew older and moved out of the house and finally tried someone ELSE'S version of these foods, then I realized I actually do like a lot of this stuff, and it was my Mom's cooking that was to blame! I love my Mom and all, and she's talented in many things, just not cooking!

But anyway, Every salad I'd ever eaten was made with mostly iceberg lettuce, and like 'dicot' said above^, I only saw iceberg lettuce as a base for holding other salad veggies.

But then, I finally tried a spinach salad, and it was absolutely wonderful! It does not have any bitter flavor, has good consistency, and isnt just a base for holding other salad veggies, as it actually tastes good. I just bought a bag of baby spinach last week for salads, and I eat it alone in a salad with only (real)bacon bits and sweet dressing.

As far as Belgian endive is concerned, it is very different than typical leafy endive, and is actually grown underground or indoors so that it stays tightly packed together in a solid 'head', and so it stays as white as possible. The more it gets above ground, the more green it becomes, and the more bitter it becomes. I've never really even thought of trying to grow it, but maybe its worth a try.

I am from the south, so I like turnip greens and collard greens steamed or cooked with ham or bacon. I have some collard greens I bought at Lowes, and I'm growing that for the first time, but I've never tried collard raw.

The entire amaranth family, including spinach/chard/beet, is high in oxalic acid, which reduces greatly in cooking.

one more thought for salads... We love sprouts. Like alfalfa and the like.... Don`t need a soil test, fertilizer or even a garden... Sweet, crunchy and a very fast crop. Many if not all health food stores carry sprouting seeds, both as individual varieties and mixes...

I love mache. In Switzerland it's called nusslisalat - nut salad. It has a buttery nutty taste to it. Another one to try is claytonia or miner's lettuce. It doesn't look like a lettuce at all. I grew Belgian Endive this past year and have been eating the chicons and fresh-picked they're not bitter but kind of sweet.

highlander - I'm very curious about the inlaws dandelion salad - raw I assume?

Is it just the dandelions leaves? do they buy/grow/or just gather weeds? Any other veggies in there?

What kind of dressing?

Dandelion blossoms are also quite good if you batter them up and fry 'em like okra.

I like radish greens either tossed raw into a salad or sauteed along with the radish bulb.

jolj, You are from SC, right? I think there is a law that everyone in SC must eat at least one mess of Poke Salat every spring! LOL

It does your body good, detoxifies, according to my now deceased, parents, aunts and uncles, and others much older than me, and tastes really great. And I do feel better after eating a mess!

By the way, my parents lived to a very ripe old age!

I like it scrambled with eggs for breakfast!

In the winter/spring I grow a lot of lettuce, spinach and chard. By summer, it's much too hot.
This year, I'm growing several leaf amaranths, malabar and new Zealand spinach. I've not tried the malabar and new Zealand spinach but the amaranth is quite mild and an easy plant to grow.
Another option in heat is sweet potato leaves.

Knowing when to pick is the whole thing.

When I eat a big mess of poke, even after changing the water, I get a burning in the chest, kind of unpleasant.

I am one of the ones with the "bitter" gene. I was a very fussy eater when I was younger, and my family never I understood that I found things extremely bitter to me, that were sweet to them.

As I've gotten older, and exposed myself to more of the "bitter" foods I didn't like, my sensitivity to bitter has lessened quite a bit, and I actually relish bitterness now in many foods.

I would suggest the OP continue to expose themself to foods they consider bitter, and will find that over time they can eat many food previously considered bitter, opening up a whole new range of tastes and foods, as I have.

I really enjoy broccolini, not broccoli rabe, that's a whole different thing. I lightly stirfry it in a bit of oil and add s&p, sometimes I'll add minced garlic, a slash of soy or oyster sauce. Cooking it seems to bring out the sweetness in this vegetable. I also peel a bit of the green off the bottom of the stem, similar to what you'd do for asparagus.

I am growing sweet potatoes this year and the greens are great, Very mild. Good in salads, smoothies and cooked.

Are you growing peppers, chilies , capsicum ?
Well, they are going to be killed by frost in most of US. So start eating pepper leaves. Cook them like spinach.

Johnnys Seeds catalog has pages full of greens. I recommend a mesclun mix that has just mild lettuces like butterhead, red and green leaf, etc. I think butterhead or buttercrunch type is the sweetest most flavorful garden lettuce. It forms nice, small, loose heads. Red leaf lettuce is sweet, too.

Parsley and dill are nice additions to salads as are violet leaves and bok choy. Very healthy.

Greens that are bolting (getting old and starting to flower) are usually very bitter.

Johnny's catalog separates greens into groups with descriptions so you can choose what's best. I stay away from mustard, arugula, cilantro. It's a matter of personal taste, which is why there are so many choices out there.

OLD post but I thought I'd chime in after reading a few of the above posts.

I think it's very ignorant to assume that California doesn't receive frosts and freezes. California is home to the most diverse climates maybe in the world. The central valley of Cali(where most of the agriculture is) just so happens to be the perfect climate for cool weather crops to grow. it's cool enough for them to thrive, while not so cold that they can't be grown.

There's a reason why 95% of the broccoli grown in the U.S. is grown in California.

Back to the diversity -- There's a reason why so many fruits and veggies come from California. Believe me, it's not the price of the water...LOL it's the fact that "somewhere" in the state, from apples to oranges, from garlic to tomatoes -- there's a place that a particular veggy or fruit will thrive because of the CLIMATE.

Rant over. ;)

Kevin

This post was edited by woohooman on Sat, Oct 5, 13 at 15:43

Interesting thread. I love greens and agree that you can accustom yourself to some degree to the bitter taste.

California is home to the most diverse climates maybe in the world.

I think it might be the Big Island of Hawaii. Supposedly has 11 of the 13 climate classifications (excluding tundra and polar ice cap?). Active volcano, rainforest, desert, and snow on top of the largest mountain in the world (if you count what's underwater).

Hawaii doesn't have more diverse climates than CA. HI doesn't even have diverse seasons. There's no place in HI that has high chilling and a warm growing season. That rules out all crops and fruits that need chilling and summer heat.

CA has blazing deserts and the biggest trees in the world growing in a cloud forest. It also has all combinations of cool, warm, and hot summers/winters except truly tropical, ie warm all year. And the elevation extremes in CA are as large as in HI.

This post was edited by fruitnut on Sun, Oct 6, 13 at 17:52

Yep: just going up the Palm Springs Tramway, one goes from desert to alpine in a 15 minute ride. I went on it one time in April when the temps at the bottom were in the 90's and there were people cross country skiing at the top.

Kevin

Don’t forget Texas and it’s variety of different climates.