Eat fresh, stay healthy: The power of Spring Greens.

As March heralds spring, it will still be a while before most of the new season produce arrives into the Westbury Community Shop and Café, as we enter what is traditionally known as ‘the hungry gap’.  This period covering a few weeks from March to early May comes when the stored winter root vegetables are eaten up and before most of the new plantings are ready to harvest. However, there is a bright side – Spring Greens!  These amazing cabbages are full of flavour and packed with vitamins C, E and K, iron, potassium, fibre and calcium, and like their fellow members of the brassica family (kale, cabbage, broccoli) they contain the naturally occurring anti-inflammatory compounds sulforaphane and indoles.

They have a softer texture than cabbage, and taste sweeter and fresher, so are perfect for lighter, spring cooking, making a delicious side dish, and adding colour and depth to pasta dishes and more.As they are one of the few locally produced vegetables at this time of year, they can definitely help the household budget too, as most of the other fruits and vegetables that we consume during the hungry gap have to be imported, resulting in higher prices.

Some of our favourite dishes include; spring greens carbonara, with the addition offrozen peas to help the budget www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/creamy-spring-greens-rigatoni-with-lemon-bacon-chilli and spring greens with a lemon dressing, excellent served with oven baked salmon or roast chicken www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spring-greens-lemon-dressing