Cooking greens are simply leafy portions of vegetables that are well suited for cooking rather than being served raw in salads.

A good many root vegetables, such as beets and turnips, serve both functions—the roots are cooked or sliced up for salads, while the above-ground leafy portions are used for cooking greens.

While vegetables in the cooking greens category aren’t always related to one another botanically, they all share some similar qualities.

Most are easy to grow, and many offer a long season of cut-and-come-again harvesting, meaning you can take what you need for cooking and leave the rest of the plant to continue producing.

Many cooking greens can be frozen for winter eating, and most can be succession planted—planted at different times in the same garden area to make maximum use of the growing season.

Here are 12 vegetables for the home garden that make … [ keep reading on the spruce ]