BINGHAMTON, NY (WIVT/WBGH) – This month’s Nutrition in the Kitchen segment features a healthy vegetable that’s grown indoors locally year-round.
Cornell Cooperative Extension Nutrition Educator Ann Supa is fixing a butternut squash, microgreens, quinoa salad.
Supa is highlighting microgreens produced by Big Yield Growers at its facility in Endicott.
She adds a blend of radish and arugula greens to roasted squash, quinoa and a sesame dressing.
Supa says microgreens are grown indoors in soil and are typically harvested within 7 to 14 days, before they develop a second set of leaves.
She says the miniature plants are loaded with vitamins, anti-oxidants and dietary fiber and come in a wide variety of flavors.
“I like the ones that are kind of sweeter. Someone might like the arugula that has a little bite and bitterness to it. So, if you try one and you’re like, ‘Oh, that wasn’t my favorite,’ believe me they have 4 or 5 different ones that you can try so you never walk away not finding one that you like.”
Big Yield Growers sells its products at the Farmers Market on Saturdays from 9 until 1.
Supa says microgreens are different from sprouts in that sprouts are grown in the dark, without soil and consist just of a seed and small plant shoot.
She says both have relatively short shelf lives and should be thoroughly washed before eating.
Supa says her salad also provides whole grain nutrition from the quinoa and vitamins A and C from the squash.
You can watch her prepare the dish below.