Microgreens: A nutrient-dense food for improved health and well-being

In recent years, the attention towards microgreens is increasing due to the rise in public awareness of healthy eating worldwide. “Microgreens" are a young, immature, and tender edible seedling of edible plants harvested at 2-5 inches tall, 6 to 15 days post sowing when the cotyledonary leaves start to emerge or just before the fully developed first true leaves.

- Ajeet Singh', G. P. Mishra', Sneh Narawal', Nandlal Meena?, Chirag Maheshwari', Muzaffar Hasan and Sukumar Taria“

Microgreens are harvested at ground level including stem and cotyledons. This category of food fall between the sprout and baby green (Murphy et al., 2010; Verlinden, 2020). These are very attractive due to their colors, texture, and flavors. So, microgreens can be used as a new ingredient in various dishes i.e., in salads, soups, dhal, chapatti, burger, sandwiches, etc. which help the dishes to enhance their texture, color, flavor and also it gives diversity to our food system (Lee et al., 2009). The wide variety of vegetables, herbs, pulses, and other plants seeds can be used for the production of microgreens in a very small and large area (Fig 1).