Dual purpose veggies

Beetroot leaves are edible.

Pea shoots, runner bean flowers. Nasturtium leaves, flowers and seeds can all be used. One of my cookbooks has a recipe for blackcurrant leaf sorbet.

You can use all parts of most brassicas too - swede and turnip leaves, flower shoots of kale, stalks of kale/PSB/calabrese are all edible too.

Radish leaves are edible, and I made a tasty pesto with them, and apparently the seed pods are also delicious as snacks, or added to a salad or stir fry (and I quite fancy the idea of making them into tempura). Sadly the radish I left in to bolt is stubbornly refusing to do so, and is instead just developing into a ginormous root.

The flower shoots of most brassica, especially oriental ones, can be eaten if they bolt. My pak choi bolted after the first cutting, but the shoots were delicious lightly steamed, and a second flush is coming through now. Turnips are another example of a brassica where the shoots (or "turnip tops") can be eaten, and turnip leaves can also be used as greens.

I was going to mention pea shoots and nasturtium leaves (another leaf I want to try in a pesto), flowers and seed pods (a caper substitute), but see eirish beat me to it.

I've also seen people mention that you can stir fry broad bean tips when you pinch them out (assuming they're not infested with black fly).

Fennel, you can use the leaves in salads, and let it bolt for the seeds.

Chicory root as a coffee substitute is mentioned in one of my books - no recipe given, though.


Oh, and a load of different seeds (again brassicas being good examples) can be used for ultra trendy sprouts or micro-greens, and neither of those should be dependant on the weather.

Brussel sprout tops! and dont forget pea pod wine!

Some excellent ideas here, thanks Keep 'em coming

I read recently that you can use young horseradish leaves chopped into potato salad.

And if you cut your (for instance) little gem lettuce but leave the stalk there is a good chance you will get leaves you can harvest.

Pea pod soup anyone?

Apparently broccoli seedlings can be eaten as micro-greens and are high in naturally occurring anti-cancer agents.