🥗 Mizuna

Mizuna is a Japanese salad leaf with feathery, deeply cut leaves and a mild, peppery flavour. It is one of the most useful winter salads because it is very hardy, grows well in cool weather and shade, and regrows after cutting.

It is also very easy: one sowing can be cut several times, and the plants tolerate cold and partial shade better than lettuce. It fills pots, window boxes and winter beds with little effort, and the thin leaves are beautiful in mixed salads.

Varieties to try

Mizuna (the classic green type)Red mizuna (purple-tinged leaves)Mibuna (a close relative with spoon-shaped leaves)Misome (very mild, from the same group)

Sow thinly outdoors from March to September in shallow drills 1 cm deep, in rows 15–20 cm apart, or broadcast across a bed or pot. For baby leaves, sow close together and cut when 5–10 cm tall. For larger plants, thin to 10–20 cm apart.

For winter salad, sow in August and September, in the ground, in pots in a cold frame, unheated greenhouse or under a cloche. In midsummer, choose a shady position, as heat and dry conditions make the leaves hot and cause bolting. Sow short rows every few weeks.

Top tips

• Sow in September for winter leaves under cover.
• Choose a shady spot in midsummer.
• Broadcast sow in pots for baby leaf.
• Cover with fine mesh against flea beetle.

Mizuna needs very little care. Keep the soil moist, as drought makes the leaves hot and woody, and water in the morning. Cut back flowering shoots to prolong picking. It will grow in poor soil, though a little compost gives better leaf.

Flea beetle makes small holes in the leaves, mainly in spring and summer, and is kept away with fine mesh. Slugs may feed on autumn sowings. Plants in the ground survive hard winters, but those under cloches give fresher leaves in freezing weather.

Top tips

• Cut hard to regrow fresh leaves.
• Use mesh against flea beetle.
• Water in dry weather.
• Cover winter crops with a cloche or fleece.

Watch out for

Flea beetleSlugsAphidsBolting in hot weather

Begin cutting baby leaves about three weeks after sowing, using scissors to snip them 2.5 cm above the soil. The plants regrow, and you can cut several times over a few weeks. Larger leaves can be harvested individually from the outside of each plant for stir-fries.

Plants will eventually flower, usually in spring, producing yellow blooms that are edible and attractive to pollinators. Let one or two plants go to seed to collect seeds for future sowings. Pull up the old plants after flowering and resow.

Top tips

• Cut with scissors and leave the base to regrow.
• Pick young leaves for the mildest flavour.
• Eat the yellow flowers.
• Save seed from a bolted plant.

Mizuna adds a gentle mustardy bite to salads, and the leaves also work well wilted into soups, stir-fries and noodle dishes at the last minute. It is lovely paired with Asian dressings of soy, sesame and ginger, or with a simple lemon and olive oil dressing.

Fresh leaves keep for up to five days in a bag in the fridge, though they are at their best straight after picking. Mizuna does not freeze or dry well, so sow it little and often. Winter-hardy plants in the ground act as living storage.

Top tips

• Mix with other salad leaves for variety.
• Wilt into hot soup at the end of cooking.
• Dress with soy, sesame oil and lemon.
• Pick just before you need it.