Microgreens are nutritional powerhouses that are awesome to include in your diet, and kitchen use. Check out some of these microgreen recipes for more ideas, and to expand your use of microgreens beyond salad and sandwiches.
Did you know that you can Grow Enough Greens in your Kitchen to Keep Your Salad Bowl Full, Even If You Don’t Have a Garden? It’s true! If you follow the instructions in that post you can easily grow a pound or two of greens each week. That’s a whole lot of greens. So now that you are producing all of these greens, what in the world are you going to do with all of them?
There are so many wonderful ways to use microgreens. In this post we will talk about salads, soups, stir frys, sandwiches, wraps, tacos, burgers, appetizers, side dishes, smoothies and omelettes. I am going to give you a few recipes in each category to get you started. Once you start incorporating microgreens into your meal plan, you will see how easy it is to add them to almost anything.
Even though growing microgreens is easy to do, if you’re growing them yourself it’s going to be really important to have a plan in place so that all of those delicious and nutritious greens don’t go to waste. Your time is valuable and you definitely want to take advantage of the wonderful abundance of your microgreen harvest. With a great plan in place, you will be eating microgreens for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And if you think that you might get tired of eating microgreens every day, don’t worry we are going to provide you with lots of variety.
Microgreen Recipes for Breakfast:
Let’s start off with breakfast. You can start your morning off right by including microgreens in your favorite breakfast dishes. Microgreens are great in any kind of egg dish or your favorite smoothie recipe.
You can get some extra veggies into your breakfast routine by adding microgreens to your scrambled eggs, quiche or this Vegetable Omelette. Micro greens, and sprouts, go great with eggs.
Another super easy way to sneak in those extra microgreens is by adding them to your morning smoothie. Here is a great Pineapple and Orange Green Smoothie recipe with microgreens. You can even alt out leafy greens in smoothies in exchange for greater powerhouse nutrition from microgreens.
Microgreen Recipes for Salads:
Now, let’s talk about salads. Salads are awesome, light, crunchy, nutritious, and sometimes strangely satisfying. If you keep the ingredients prepped and ready to go, it makes a quick and easy meal for lunch or dinner, or you can just make them in advance and only apply dressing when you’re ready to enjoy.
Microgreens can be used as the main green for your salad. The best kinds of greens to use as the main green include sunflower, pea and radish because they are larger and fill up your bowl faster. Microgreens that have smaller leaves, like broccoli, are better suited as an addition to your salad rather than the main attraction.
This is a great Microgreen Salads recipe with your hard-grown greens as the stars. What’s really awesome about it is that she gives you a specific recipe with specific ingredients and she also gives you her formula for creating a microgreen salad with whatever you have on hand. This gives you the opportunity to get creative with your salads. You can create lots of variety so that you never get bored with the same old salad every day. It also enables you to manage your resources, and growing efforts, well by using what you have so that nothing goes to waste.
If you have root vegetables, like beets, available as well as your microgreens. This Roasted Beet Salad is a good option. It combines roasted beets, oranges and avocados which is then topped with microgreens for a unique salad option.
If you’re looking for the perfect side dish to bring to your next backyard barbeque, look no further. Microgreens make a great addition to this Dill Potato Salad, though you might want to focus on the finer leaved microgreens, like broccoli and beets so that it blends in better.
A favorite flavor combination, sweet strawberries with chicken, this salad is an awesome option for dinners or lunches. Strawberry Chicken Salad with Microgreens, can also be adapted with other garden greens, like kale, spinach, or mixed lettuce depending on what you have in season.
For a heavier, but fun vegetarian option that includes your beautiful greens, this Simple Chickpea Salad could be a good option. Switch out the chickpeas for other canned beans that you have on hand, or blend a few different types of beans for more variety.
For a southern salad flare, this Creamy Sweet Corn Pasta Salad gives off summer BBQ vibes. Top with microgreens, or mix them in with the dressing. Spicy radish greens, or nutty sunflower greens might be the best pairings.
This salad sounds delicious, and you could even make the arugula as arugula microgreens. Strawberry Mango Arugula Salad with Goat Cheese, or just make the microgreens another addition and create some extra flavor variety.
This salad sounds like a fun burst of color, with the carrots. Carrot and Jerusalem Artichoke Salad would definitely pair well with a nice batch of sunflower and pea microgreen shoots.
Main Dishes with Microgreens
Microgreens are the perfect solution if you’re looking to add some extra flavor, nutrition and texture to your favorite soups. Try this 10-Minute Gazpacho recipe or this Carrot Soup. Use the microgreens as a topping or garnish to add color, flavor, and extra textures.
You can also add microgreens to this Garlic Scapes Stir Fry or any other stir fry recipe. If you make stir-fry by rule of thumb, simply add your microgreen addition near the end of the cooking time, and just fry them in long enough to tenderize.
Sandwiches are another great way of using those microgreens. Instead of using plain lettuce on your favorite sandwich or wrap, why not try microgreens instead? You will love the unique flavor and crunch that microgreens bring to your favorite sandwich. Micro-herbs could be an even better option for sandwiches, a salmon or tuna salad sandwich would be epic with parsley micro-herbs as the garnish.
If you need a little inspiration, here are some recipes for toast, sandwiches, flat breads, burgers, pitas and even tacos that all include microgreens.
Jazz up this enjoyable staple of Avocado Toast, by using microgreens as the topping garnish instead of sprouts, or nuts and seeds. Beet or radish microgreens would be my go-to, for color contrast.
This sounds sort of tasty, Pesto Flatbread with Microgreen Salad though I’m not sure the microgreens need to be in a separate salad. I’d just pile them on the flatbread with pesto.
This is a fun sandwich, Radish Avocado and Egg Mayonnaise Sandwich, if you wanted to skip making mayo you could just have a radish microgreen, avocado, and egg salad.
Salmon Burgers with Avocado Sauce This sounds like something you’d find in a fancy restaurant, but it’s probably way tastier to make at home with your own microgreens on the side.
Upgrade the easy smoke salmon or smoked kipper sandwich with microgreens, and cream cheese. This recipe, Smoked Fish Sandwich, gives a good starting point.
Mushrooms are awesome, and mushrooms with microgreens are even better. Check out these Portobello Sliders as a great option for appetizers, or a light dinner.
Whether you like veggie burgers, or regular hamburgers, microgreens can upgrade the lettuce and add more nutrition and flavor. This recipe has tahini, Tahini Veggie Burgers, and tahini is awesome.
Pitas are versatile for many different types of lunches and dinners. Check out these Spicy Spring Garden Pitas for another fun way to use pita with healthy fillings.
This fun sandwich uses cream cheese, cherries, and microgreens to set off that early summer, light lunch, feel. Cherry Orchard Baguette would be a great mid-day meal, or a great end of day meal after a long day out in the garden.
Go wild with these Broiled Tilapia Tacos, and don’t let the tilapia fool you. Alt in your favorite fish, if needed, and pile on the microgreens for a great dinner.
If you’re looking to impress your guests at your next dinner party or just want to treat yourself to a healthy, delicious snack, here is a fun appetizer that uses microgreens to top Chickpea Blini with Hummus and Mushrooms or this Deconstructed Caprese Salad Appetizer.
Microgreen Side Dishes
How about incorporating some of those delicious microgreens into your favorite side dishes to give them a little extra crunch? Side dishes don’t have to just be salads either. Here are just a few ideas to get you started.
If you enjoy cheese, this Brie and Lemon Asparagus Risotto is an interesting option. So is this sea-food incorporating one, a
Crab Risotto with Marscapone and Peas
Here’s another fun idea, Carrot Fritters with Tahini Yogurt Sauce, which sounds delicious.
If you like pasta as a side dish, not a main one, this Creamy Pea Pasta or this Homemade Pasta with Fresh Greens are great inspirations.
If you’re already growing your own microgreens, I hope these recipes give you lots of ideas and ways to use these nutritional powerhouses in new ways. There’s no need to end up always making the same meals, with the wide versatility of microgreens, as a garnish, in so many dishes. If you haven’t yet started growing microgreens, these recipes can also be done with sprouts, or your favorite small-leaved salad mix, and you can always start growing microgreens too.
Just sit down and pick a few new recipes that you would like to try. Get those microgreens started and then be prepared with all of the additional ingredients that you’ll need to complete your dishes when the microgreens are ready to be harvested. Enjoy!
New to growing microgreens?
Check out the Fill Your Salad Bowl workshop and learn how to use 3 different growing methods, at home, so you can fill your salad bowl with super food, nutrient dense, greens every single day. These are greens you can use in your salad bowl, greens you can add to soups, stews, and pasta dishes, and even greens you can use in a stir fry.
In this mini workshop you will learn how to fill a salad bowl every day with food you grow yourself.
- Even if you don’t have any land.
- Even if there is 3 feet of snow covering your garden
- Even if you’ve killed house plants in the past.
- Even if you think you have a black thumb.
Have a look at what’s covered in this workshop and see if its a good fit for you, by clicking/tapping the blue button below.
Meet Tracy
This post is a guest post by Tracy McGee
Tracy is the creator, mentor, and teacher at Treasured Creations Homestead. She is passionate about helping families use homesteading skills and natural living to improve their health, deepen their faith, strengthen the family and build community. When she isn’t working on the homestead, you can find her hanging out at the fire station, hiking in the Shawnee National Forest, sitting on the front porch, or taking a road trip with her hubby and kids. Tracy is a member of our DIY Herbal Fellowship, a membership that teaches you how to grow and use herbs for food and medicine.
