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1. Plant Leafy Greens
Leafy greens have to top the list of easy to grow, heart-healthy foods. When consuming your lettuce, kale, cabbage, spinach, or chard, keep this in mind: cooking greens really breaks down the nutrients so eat raw leafy greens whenever possible. Boiling may be a relatively quick and easy way to cook your vegetables, but in most cases you are better off steaming them. Up to 50 percent of the vitamins and 15 percent of the minerals in your vegetables may be lost during cooking. Steamed vegetables are not only healthier, they taste better. You can also use a dehydrator to dry out kale, sprinkle lightly with sea salt and the effect is of a very healthy snack that tastes like a potato chip.
When cooking your leafy greens, it’s very simple to “sneak” some spinach into mashed potatoes, soup or your favorite casserole. Offer tuna salad, but on a bed of lettuce, instead of bread. Use cauliflower instead of breading on your chicken or fish.
Cabbage is excellent for fermentation (think sauerkraut). The probiotics produced during fermentation can help restore the balance of friendly bacteria in your gut and may alleviate some digestive problems.
2. Don't Forget Your Root Vegetables
Root vegetables, like carrots, turnips or potatoes, are easy to grow and are high in nutrients (think Vitamin A, potassium, and calcium). And bonus - you can easily store them in a simple root cellar for the winter. (Check out how to use a root cellar in this DIY post.)
A couple things to note...
As far as calories go, root vegetables contain a low amount of calories. However, root vegetables contain a lot of starch-filled carbohydrates. Consume in moderation if you are struggling with your weight.
3. Add Nightshades for More Nutrients
Nightshade vegetables have a high nutrient density. This means they pack a lot of nutrients in a small number of calories. Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are part of the nightshade family. Nightshades are a botanical family of foods and spices that contain chemical compounds called alkaloids.
A single bell pepper, for example, contains well over the recommended daily amount of vitamin C, and tomatoes are a major source of the antioxidant lycopene, which some studies have associated with decreased risk heart disease and even cancer.
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