What are these delicious leaves? (leafs ..?)

[magz.mccarthy]

Hi,

i had the most delicious salad ever the other day. The leaves in it were absolutely fantastic but I have no idea what they were. I really should have taken a picture. They were a rich but light green colour with a really intense red stem thingy (to use the technical term). The stem tasted even sweeter than the leaf.

Any ideas on what it could be and whether they grow here?

Margaret

[FionaH]

I just saw some spinach seeds at the GC and the pic sounds just like you described

[zazen999]

Beetroot leaves?

[magz.mccarthy]

Beetroot leaves do match the colours. They were very small little fellas, perhaps they were picked off seedlings? Seems like a mad commercial crop though, this was at a restaurant.

[Two_Sheds]

young beetroot leaves

[digthatchick]

I would go for Beetroot leaves too, remember that beetroot were originally grown for their leaves not the root.

[Shaun the Sheep]

I grow beetroot just for the leaves - they are delicious in salads when young and can be stir fried or steamed when they are older.

[Flummery]

They are an excellent salad leaf. As is spinach.

[Growem]

They could have been rainbow chard too, couldn't they?

[Alice]

I'd go for beetroot. I grow some for the salad bowl.

[BrideXIII]

beetroot, its the in 'thing' for bagged salads at the moment.

[Woofster]

There is a spinach called Bordeaux which produces red stemmed leaves and is lovely to eat raw. It grows quite tall - not very spinach like. Could have been that.

[magz.mccarthy]

I planted some beetroot seeds last night and I'll eat them the second they are big enough to let ye know! I'm not the biggest fan of beetroot (though the boyfriend claims it makes a burger) but if these are the leaves then I'll grow loads of them! Thanks for the suggestions.

[Two_Sheds]

They could have been rainbow chard too, couldn't they?

... which is related to beetroot

[amandaandherveg]

Sounds like Red Chard - I used to have a restaurant and we used Red Chard in a Chicken with Cracked Pepper and Red Chard Salad. Very tasty, crunchy peppery leaf.

Did it look like this?.....

http://www.britishleafysalads.co.uk/.../red-chard.jpg