Mustard greens

Overview

Spicy, bold-flavored greens that bring heat and depth to salads, stir-fries, and Southern cooking traditions. Mustard greens come in a kaleidoscope of varieties — from the giant, crinkled leaves of Southern types to the beautiful red and purple Asian cultivars. Their pungent glucosinolates, the same compounds found in horseradish and wasabi, are among the most potent cancer-fighting phytochemicals in the plant kingdom.

Brassica juncea, commonly known as mustard greens, brown mustard, Chinese mustard, Indian mustard, Japanese mustard, Korean green mustard, leaf mustard, Oriental mustard, and vegetable mustard, is a species of mustard plant. Cultivars can be divided into four major subgroups: integrifolia, juncea, napiformis, and tsatsai.

In a 100-gram reference serving, cooked mustard greens provide 110 kilojoules (26 kilocalories) of food energy. They are a rich source (20% or more of the Daily Value) of vitamins A, C, and K—K being especially high as a multiple of its Daily Value. Mustard greens are also a moderate source of vitamin E and calcium. The leaves, seeds, and stems of this mustard variety are edible.

The plant appears in some form in African, Bangladeshi, Chinese, Filipino, Tripuri, Italian, Indian, Japanese, Okinawan, Nepali, Pakistani, Korean, Southern, Taiwanese, and African-American (soul food) cuisines. Cultivars of B. juncea are grown for their greens and for the production of mustard oil. The mustard condiment made from the seeds of the B. juncea is called brown mustard and is considered to be spicier than yellow mustard.

Growing Conditions

Habitat & Range

Habitat

Meadows & Open Areas

Cultivation Region

Northern temperate regions

Botanical data via projectGAIA.

Companion Planting & Soil

Sowing & Propagation

Planting Calendar

When to sow, transplant, and harvest by growing zone.

Uses

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