Get your chloro-fill: Swetha Sivakumar on leafy greens

Of the estimated 200,000 species of plant that are technically edible, we eat only 200. See why, even among those, the leafy greens can be particularly tricky.

Your grandparents can probably identify dozens of leafy greens. You, on the other hand, can hopefully tell methi from moringa from palak. Bathua, lauki leaves, ponnanganni keerai? It feels like, with every generation, there is a narrowing of the selection of greens sold by vendors, and consequently recognised, cooked and eaten in city homes.

We can thank the industrialisation of our food supply chains for this. It has made many things much easier, but others, no longer worth the effort.