30 Apr 2025
Elena Hogg, founder of local culinary company FOOD by Elena, has been encouraging her children to sample spring greens…
When I hear the term, ‘spring greens’, I have an almost Pavlovian reaction of general distaste. I even think my nose screws up a bit.
This must be founded in my childhood sense that all things made with ‘greens’ would be either very mushy or very tough, and quite sour in flavour. They’re very good for you, of course, but dismally unappealing. ‘Eat your greens’, they all say, as though anticipating reluctance. And reluctant I was indeed.
Children start out deeply wary of any green food and obstinate in their refusal to try any of it. I remember my feeling of smugness when I made my then-six-year-old’s favourite meal of spaghetti with meatballs, but had secreted into the meatball mixture some finely chopped broccoli that I’d steamed to within an inch of its life. Mummy 1 – child 0 (but winning nutritionally).
This same child is now 13 and becoming much more tolerant of green food. He even ate mushrooms in a stir-fry the other day. At the end of the meal, I’d fully expected to see a neat arc of carefully picked out mushrooms around the rim of his plate, but he’d eaten them all.
My nine-year-old makes a huge fuss of eating peas and broccoli, but devours leafy salads with gusto. It’s bemusing, though I suspect the amount of vinegar she adds has something to do with her enjoyment, being a pickles-junky already, despite her tender years.
But spring greens specifically remain unconquered by both my children thus far, and remembering my own childhood aversion, I find myself sympathising. But I do also reassure them that a time will come when the glory of this vegetable, its vibrancy and its sweet, nutty flavour, will be a firm favourite for them as it is for me.
It’s a nutritious vegetable, which scores it even more highly in my book: a good source of vitamins C and K, as well as iron and insoluble fibre, of course. If I’m honest, it’s not overly versatile, because it’s not great raw, but in its cooked form it’s a veritable party animal, happily diving into soups and stews, or hanging out with other side dishes, dressed in olive oil and lemon juice, and even a little crushed raw garlic to really bring out its brassica brawn.
Soup is almost synonymous with winter, but introducing a vivid handful of sliced spring greens into proceedings catapults soup firmly out of the cold and into the season of birth and new growth. It’s incredible how much vitality you can inject into a simple broth swimming with verdant colours and nourishment.
But spring greens can turn their hand to indulgence, too. I recently made a pasta dish to use up some spring greens stranded in the crisper drawer, and it was far more successful than I’d been expecting. What’s more, it all came together in the time it took the pasta to boil.
Slice up a smallish head of spring greens and add to a pan with some oil – garlic oil works well, or chilli oil if you like a kick. Let them start to cook down (you really don’t want them to be too tough), and add salt, black pepper (unless you used chilli oil) and some paprika (sweet, smoky, whatever you’ve got).
Halve some cherry tomatoes and add them to the pan once the greens are mostly cooked – you want them warmed through and just starting to collapse in on themselves, ideally. If you have a lemon to hand, grate the zest and throw that in too. Give it all a good mix with a few tablespoons of the pasta cooking water to bring everything together a little.
The children wandered in while my husband and I were eating this pasta dish and we took the opportunity to tempt them into trying some and finally breaching the spring greens no-fly zone. I mean, if anything’s going to render a foodstuff child-friendly, it’s pairing it with pasta, surely. And – who knows – perhaps it was the seasonal vibe of new beginnings, but both children hoovered up the lot. Happy spring (greens), everyone!
