Eat Your Reds and Pinks

Labels at the grocery store might have gotten more colorful, but for the most part, the fresh produce you can find stays the same: orange carrots, green leaves, brown potatoes. You might think that nature hasn't given us edible leaves, roots, and fruit in a rainbow of hues.

And the colors are kind of the point. The most brilliant shades weren't thought up by some marketer but by plants themselves. To get our attention so we pick the prettiest red berry or the juiciest looking pod, eat it, and then, you know.... scatter the seeds into the soil later.

The prettiest colors are survival mechanisms for the plants, and they're also incredibly beneficial to us. Red and pink fruits and vegetables, for instance, protect our hearts (how fitting!), lower our risk of developing certain types of cancers, and improve our brain function. Foods in other colors have different antioxidants with their own benefits.

This Valentine's Day, I thought it would be fun so show a little appreciation to the incredible reds and pinks that can come from the garden. Plants do so much for us—they don't need a special day of the year to show us their love. Fill your plate with some red and pink veggies or plan a theme night with your family to fill up on your reds and pinks.

Without further ado, here are our favorite red and pink fruits and veggies.

Red Carrots Are One of Our Favorite Red Roots

Did you know the original carrots were not orange? That's right! For thousands of years, humans enjoyed yellow, purple, red, and even white carrots, but no one sank their teeth into an orange carrot until the 1500s.

So what gives red carrots their color? It's a combo of beta-carotene, which is the antioxidant that also gives orange carrots their color, plus lycopene, which is basically a natural pigment called a carotenoid. Lycopine is also the plant nutrient that gives grapefruit its beautiful color.

Eating carrots in different colors is a great way to experience slightly different nutrients and flavors, but you're most likely going to have to grow your own or shop your local farmers' market in the right season to enjoy them.

Learn How to Grow Your Own Carrots

Carrots are pretty easy to grow, as long as you get their spacing right and don't mind the mystery of what's happening beneath the soil surface! And carrot harvest time is something you won't want to miss!

Find helpful tips to grow your own carrots here.

Ways to Enjoy Red Carrots

I'm not much of a cook, so my answer for how to prepare many garden veggies is baking it in the oven with some olive oil, sea salt, and balsamic vinegar. You really can't go wrong with this combo for something that's as naturally delicious as a carrot fresh from the garden.

You could also make this refreshing carrot juice to sip on.

Red Beets Are One of Our Favorite Red Roots

Red beetroots are given their beautiful scarlet rings of color by red pigments called betalains. Because the pigments that give other red foods their rich color aren't very stable, it's actually the betalains found in beets that are used as an organic food coloring for certain red foods like strawberry ice cream!

See, I said that plants show us so much love, right? They even make ice cream better.

But here's something even wackier. Beets used to be the main ingredient of love potions. That's right. It turns out beets are actually a source of tryptophan (you know, the thing that makes you sleepy after the Thanksgiving turkey). Both tryptophan and betalain have been proven to promote an overall feeling of well-being. They also contain high amounts of boron, which is a trace mineral that increases the level of sex hormones in the human body.

In Greek mythology, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, ate beets to enhance her appeal, and ancient Romans believed that beets and their juice would make you fall in love. Frescoes of beets even decorate the walls of brothels in Pompeii.

Learn How to Grow Your Own Beets

If you're looking for a little more love, I guess you need to take a note from the Ancient Romans and grow some beets at home! You do need to give these roots some space so they can form nice, juicy taproots, but then they'll reward you with so much flavor and nutrition.

Learn our tips and tricks to grow beets here.

Ways to Enjoy Beets

Nothing quite makes the entire meal like garden-fresh beets. When your ingredients are this delicious to start, you don't need much to make them better—just a little roasting with some olive oil and salt to enhance what's already there.

Radishes Are Our Favorite Pink Root

There is an old philosophy called the Doctrine of Signatures that said foods resemble the body part they benefit when consumed. Basically, a walnut helps the brain, tomatoes help the heart, etc. When it comes to root crops like carrots and radishes, well, I'm sure you can imagine. Ancient Romans used a mixture of carrots and radishes to enhance male arousal, and radishes were considered an aphrodisiac in India and Japan.

The skin of pink/red radishes gets its color from a pigment called pelargonidin, a type of anthocyanin, which also gives strawberries their color.

Learn How to Grow Your Own Radishes

The only thing sharper than that first bite into a fresh radish is Cupid's arrow. Radishes are super easy to grow, and you only need about 30 days to grow some radish varieties. Learn how to grow my favorite type, French breakfast radishes, here.

Ways to Enjoy Radishes

If raw radishes don't tickle you pink, try tossing radishes with olive oil and some salt and pepper, and roasting them like you would roasted potatoes. The cooking process makes radishes taste sweeter. You could also pickle your radishes in some vinegar and spices. Pickled radishes add flavor and crunchiness to meals.

Tomatoes Are One of Our Favorite Red Fruits

It might surprise you to know that tomatoes, like beets, were once considered an aphrodisiac. Seriously. Not long after they were introduced in Europe, back when they were the sexy new fruit in town, the French began calling tomatoes pomme d'amour, or "love apple".

Tomatoes mostly get their bright red color from lycopene, but they also have carotenoids like beta-carotene, just like carrots. Lycopene is incredibly important for our bodies and has been linked to potential health benefits such as reducing the risk of certain cancers and cardiovascular disease.

I'm not sure that tomatoes have quite the effect on our hearts (or other organs) that the French believed, but they're certainly really great for us.

Learn How to Grow Your Own Tomatoes

You can harvest your own love apples at home with the help of our complete guide to growing organic tomatoes.

Ways to Enjoy Tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes are one of my favorite things to pop right into my mouth as I'm harvesting. The ones that make it inside are great slow-roasted or tossed into salads. You could also make your own garden-fresh pico de gallo to impress your loved ones at your next little get-together.

Strawberries Are One of Our Favorite Red Fruits

If the store is ever sold out of red roses on Valentine's Day, grab your sweetheart two dozen strawberries instead. Technically, you're still getting them a member of the Rosaceae family, the same plant family that houses roses.

Strawberries get their red color from anthocyanin, a flavonoid that has been found to lower blood pressure, reduce risk of heart disease, and more in recent studies. Anthocyanin only forms once sugar enters the plant equation at the end of the ripening process, making it super easy to tell when a strawberry is ready to be picked.

Learn How to Grow Your Own Strawberries

I have an entire chapter devoted to growing strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries in my new book, Leaves, Roots & Fruit. Growing these guys takes some space and care, but then you'll be rewarded with the sweetest fruits of your success.

Ways to Enjoy Strawberries

Of course, you can dip strawberries in some melted chocolate and chill them in the fridge for a bit for a traditional Valentine's Day treat. You could also eat them with some garden-fresh spinach leaves, feta, and balsamic vinegar.

Raspberries Are One of Our Favorite Red Fruits

Raspberry leaves have long been known for aiding in healthy pregnancies and supposedly making labor easier. But new studies show that eating raspberry fruit can also help male fertility thanks to their high magnesium, vitamin C, folate, and zinc content.

Raspberries get their color from a unique polyphenol profile of anthocyanin (like strawberries) and ellagitannin, which is thought to have anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties.

Learn How to Grow Your Own Raspberries

I have an entire chapter devoted to growing strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries in my new book, Leaves, Roots & Fruit. You'll have to wait two years for your first raspberry fruit harvest, but it'll be oh so worth it.

Ways to Enjoy Raspberries

While you're waiting on your raspberry bush to produce, you can harvest the leaves and make your own delicious raspberry leaf tea, which tastes a bit like green tea but has no caffeine. Use 1 teaspoon of crushed and dried raspberry leaves per 8 ounces of boiling water, and cover your mug while the tea is steeping for at least 5 minutes to trap all those good oils.

Bell Peppers Are One of Our Favorite Red Fruits

Did you know red bell peppers are the sweetest?!

Literally though. Green bell peppers can be a little bitter, but if you leave the peppers on the plant and give them time to ripen further, they develop capsanthin and capsorubin, the main carotenoids that give them their red color—and they grow sweeter. The antioxidants inside each pepper also change with the colors and the stages of ripeness, with red bell peppers being the most nutrient-dense and the only one to contain lycopene.

Worth the wait, right?

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, bell peppers have been used to treat everything from poor blood circulation to loss of appetite. They're also the best source of vitamin C you can find in the garden. I think we typically associate orange foods with vitamin C thanks to, you know, oranges, but bell peppers actually have three times the amount of vitamin C. That's definitely something to love.

Learn How to Grow Your Own Bell Peppers

I recommend growing smaller peppers like shishitos or jalapeños before trying to grow larger peppers. When you're ready, you'll follow the same tending tasks but give bell pepper plants a longer time to form and ripen their fruits, especially if you want red ones!

Ways to Enjoy Bell Peppers

Thanks to their thick skin, bell peppers hold up to heat and are super versatile. Grill them, stuff them, roast them, or use them fresh in lieu of pita chips to scoop up hummus.

Swiss Chard Is Our Favorite Pink and Red Leafy Green

Honestly, I think a bouquet of Swiss chard leaves can hold its own next to anything that comes from the florist.

Plus, if you're sick of eating your greens, Swiss chard, with its jewel-toned stems, can be a wonderful addition to your plate. When our brain sees brightly colored food, it's tricked into believing that food will be more flavorful. So, basically, your tastebuds will write a little love sonnet to Swiss chard if you toss these leaves into salads and sautés instead of regular ol' greens.

The vivid pink and red hues of Swiss chard stems are derived from pigments called betalains, and your body will reap cancer-fighting rewards and so many other benefits when you include these leaves in your diet.

Learn How to Grow Your Own Swiss Chard

Swiss chard is easy to grow and can spend up to two years making your garden all the prettier for its presence. Here's how to grow giant Swiss chard leaves.

Ways to Enjoy Swiss Chard

Every single member of my family adores this Swiss chard lasagna recipe from Martha Stewart. It's the perfect warm meal for this time of year.

Love Your Fruits and Veggies

Who needs another box of chocolates when you could have all of these interesting foods growing in your garden?

Don't get me wrong: I love chocolate. I just wish we could open up this holiday celebrating love to more incredible foods than the one that's had a monopoly for the past century. I mean, does anything say "You're my one true Valentine" more than sharing heart-healthy pink and red foods with the one you love?

I don't think so.

Happy Valentine's Day!