9 Microgreen Recipes, One Per Variety

What To Actually Do With Them

Nine recipes, one for each variety we grow. Real cooking, exact timings, and the one rule that runs through all of them: the greens go on last.

Grown on Johns Island · Delivered from James Island · Across the Lowcountry

Nine recipes from The MicroGreens Farm on Johns Island, one per variety — from shrimp and grits with pea shoots to a South Carolina mustard sauce built for mustard microgreens. Most take under 30 minutes. The rule that matters: microgreens go on off the heat, at the end, because every one of them collapses in a hot pan.

All nine recipes

Recipe	Variety	Time	Style
Shrimp and Grits with Pea Shoots	Pea Shoots	55 min	Lowcountry
Sunflower Shoot Salad with Lemon and Pecans	Sunflower	15 min	Weeknight
Oysters with Radish Microgreen Mignonette	Radish	15 min	Lowcountry
Pulled Pork Sliders with South Carolina Mustard Sauce and Mustard Microgreens	Mustard Greens	30 min	Lowcountry
Arugula Microgreen Pesto	Arugula	15 min	Chef
Soft Scrambled Eggs with Broccoli Microgreens	Broccoli	10 min	Weeknight
White Bean and Sausage Soup with Kale Microgreens	Kale	40 min	Weeknight
Fried Fish Tacos with Cabbage Microgreen Slaw	Cabbage	30 min	Lowcountry
Prosciutto with Cantaloupe Melon Microgreens	Cantaloupe Melon	10 min	Chef

The three rules that apply to every one of these

1. Off the heat, at the end. Microgreens are seedlings. They have no skin, no rind and nothing protecting them, and a hot pan destroys them in about two seconds. Every recipe here adds them after the cooking is finished. The single exception is kale microgreens stirred into soup once the pot is off the burner.

2. Acid starts a clock. Lime juice, vinegar or dressing will soften microgreens within about five minutes. Dress them while the rest of the food is resting, never ahead.

3. Match quantity to heat, not to appetite. A pinch of mustard microgreens is plenty on a slider. A whole bowl of sunflower shoots is a salad. The peppery varieties are seasonings; the sweet ones are ingredients.

Pick by how much time you have

If you have	Make
10 minutes	Soft scrambled eggs with broccoli microgreens, or prosciutto with melon microgreens
15 minutes	Sunflower shoot salad, arugula pesto, or oysters with radish mignonette
30 minutes	Fish tacos with cabbage slaw, or pulled pork sliders with SC mustard sauce
An hour	Shrimp and grits with pea shoots, or white bean and sausage soup

Cooking questions

Can you cook microgreens?

Briefly, or not at all. Heat destroys most microgreens in seconds, so they go on after the pan. Kale microgreens are the one exception that survives being stirred into hot food off the heat, and sunflower and pea shoots will take a few seconds in a hot pan.

When do you add microgreens to a dish?

Last, almost always. Off the heat, at the table if you can manage it. Anything acidic – a dressing, lime juice, vinegar – also starts a clock, so dress microgreens within about five minutes of serving rather than ahead of time.

How much do you use in a recipe?

Less than you think for the peppery ones and more than you think for the sweet ones. A pinch of mustard microgreens per slider; a whole bowl of sunflower shoots as a salad. Heat, not volume, is what decides the quantity.

Which microgreen should I cook with first?

Broccoli, on eggs. It is $5, it is the mildest thing we grow, and it takes ten minutes. If you want the recipe that actually converts people, it is the sunflower shoot salad – it is the one that changes what people think microgreens are for.

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