22/04/2026
All of these will grow in uk gardens too 🌱
Sixteen edible leaves from plants already growing in most US kitchen gardens — most of them ignored or pulled as w**ds.
Always confirm identification with certainty before eating any unfamiliar leaf. Tomato, rhubarb, and raw bean leaves are toxic.
Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) — sharp, lemony, excellent raw in salads or wilted like spinach. Self-seeding perennial.
Common mallow (Malva neglecta) — mild, mucilaginous, good in soups. One of the more nutritious wild leaves common across US lawns and gardens.
Beet leaves — the tops of ordinary garden beets, eaten exactly like spinach. Rich in iron, often discarded.
Turnip tops — young turnip leaves and shoots in spring are a classic Southern green, eaten long before supermarkets existed.
Radish leaves — bristly when raw, mild and good wilted or in broth. Harvest from thinnings.
Zucchini leaves — young zucchini leaves are edible, mild, and substantial. Harvest sparingly so the plant keeps fruiting.
Lovage (Levisticum officinale) — intensely celery-flavored leaves. A little goes a long way. Grow as a perennial and use in stocks.
Lamb's quarters (Chenopodium album) — a common garden w**d treated as spinach. Higher in iron than commercial spinach. Cultivated by Indigenous peoples across North America for centuries.
Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) — succulent leaves with a mild lemony flavor, rich in omega-3. Grows readily in warm dry conditions.
Orach (Atriplex hortensis) — an ancient salad leaf, related to lamb's quarters, with a mild spinach flavor. Red-leaved varieties are ornamental too.
Nasturtium leaves — peppery, large, excellent in salads. Every part of the nasturtium is edible.
Pea shoots — the young growing tips of garden peas, harvested from the top few inches of the plant. Sweet, tender, and best eaten raw.
Rosemary — not just a flavoring herb. Young rosemary leaves are edible and useful as a seasoning in quantity.
Borage leaves — cucumber-flavored, best when young. Use as a salad leaf or wilt briefly.
Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) — strongly lemon-scented leaves. Use fresh in salads, teas, or as a herb. Perennial and extremely easy to grow.
Amaranth (Amaranthus species) — grown easily from seed, the young leaves are mild and spinach-like. Both grain and leaf types are edible. Several Amaranthus species are native to the Americas. 🌿
