If you’re buying carrots, beets, radishes, or similar root vegetables, they’re often tastier when they come with the tops attached. They’re pulled straight from the ground and go right to your table, ready for a salad or an oven roast. Even better? If you’re getting to cook with your first crop of veggies from your home garden, complete with those nutritious tops. They can take a little more work to prepare, but they’re often more naturally delicious without the bagging and processing that can sap them of their flavor.
When working with fresh veggies at home, there are a few important rules and tips to follow. First, try shaving them for better salad additions. Next, if you plan to cook them, make sure to add oil at just the right time and preheat your sheet pan to get them extra crispy. But, most importantly, don’t throw away your vegetable tops. You can save them to add more flavor to your veggie dish or make a whole new course.
Vegetable tops are incredibly flavorful and super versatile. They make a great roasted side dish, a pleasantly bitter and tasty salad topper, or just a simple aromatic garnish. Cooking your vegetable tops or greens is also a great way to reduce food waste. With all of these benefits and applications, you’ll be surprised you weren’t using them in the first place.
How to cook your vegetable tops
Carrot tops are one of the most useful and easy to use of all root vegetable “leftovers.” You can simply dice them and add them to a salad, or get a little deeper into the prep. They’re similar in flavor profile to parsley, so they make a nice garnish or can be mixed with garlic and oil in the blender or food processor to make a simple pesto (which makes great topper for sweet and sticky, maple syrup glazed carrots) or a take on chimichurri. Alternatively, you can roast them in the oven or air fryer. Simply rinse them off, toss them with a little olive oil, put them on a sheet pan, and roast them at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes. You can add salt and pepper or any other seasoning you like. They’ll come out crispy and crunchy with a nice savory finish.
You can cook radish greens much the same way. They’re a little bit more bitter than carrot greens, but make a wonderful snack roasted in the oven. The broader leaves hold up to the roast a bit more, so you can enjoy them like chips. They make a nice addition to a salad, for a spicy, bitter crunch. You can even sauté them in a little butter or olive oil with garlic. They end up crunchy and a bit chewy — the perfect side dish for any meal, sort of like collard greens.
When it comes to beet or turnip tops, you can also sauté them or just add them as an extra green to tacos or quesadillas. Finally, if you don’t want to cook them right at the moment, you can save almost any veggie top in a bag or container in the freezer to use for added flavor in your next batch of chicken stock or vegetable soup.
