When you have a large crop of komatsuna from the garden or farmstand, you don't have time to casually include it in complicated recipes or to frantically figure out how to use it up before it goes bad without getting sick of it. You want to make the most of your harvest and to actually enjoy it.
Here at Plant to Plate, we like to keep things simple! Here are some of my favorite ways to use or preserve komatsuna:
- Substitute it for spinach in many cases. Although it has a somewhat different taste than spinach, komatsuna is similar enough in both taste and texture to stand in for it in many dishes, especially if cooked or baked.
- Sauté it with garlic and lemon juice, lemon balm, or lemon verbena. This is a great, simple dish as-is. Other mix-ins such as tofu, peanuts, and/or sesame seeds and drizzles like soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, or a cayenne-based hot sauce can also be added for variety if desired.
- Sauté it in sesame oil with mushrooms and peppers. Sweet peppers like bell peppers, hot peppers like jalapeños and habaneros, and in-between peppers like poblanos and banana peppers all work well here. So it's easy to swap out for whichever types of peppers are abundant in your garden at the moment!
- Sauté it with onions and turnips.
- Sauté it with water chestnuts and onions.
- Sauté or stirfry it with fennel bulbs and stems. Add sausage and parmesan if desired.
- Add it to other sautés and stirfry dishes, alone or with other Brassica greens like tatsoi, mizuna, and kale.
- Add it to egg dishes like omelets and quiches.
- Add it to pasta dishes, both stovetop and baked.
- Add it to soups and broths.
- Use it as a Base or Partial Base in an Interesting Salad. (Wondering why I capitalized those letters? Read more about Interesting Salads here!) Komatsuna combines particularly well with other Brassica greens like tatsoi and mizuna. Keep in mind that you may not want to consume raw komatsuna if you are sensitive to glucosinolates, which are significantly reduced by cooking.
- Add it to other salads.
- Add it to smoothies for a nutritious boost.
- Dry it for later use. Dried komatsuna can be powdered and added to soups, smoothies, savory baked goods, and more.
- Blanch and freeze it to save it for later as an alternative to drying. Learn more about blanching here.
- Pickle it, alone or with green onions and your favorite peppers, hot, mild, or in-between. Komatsuna works well with both traditional and quick-pickling techniques.
Further Reading
Growing komatsuna? Check out these quick facts like its best growing conditions, companion plants, and expected yields.
Komatsuna is also featured in these articles: