Arugula
Arugula brings a bold, peppery spark to salads and cooked dishes that few greens can match.
In a nutshell
Arugula is a fast-growing leafy green with a distinctive sharp, peppery bite that mellows slightly when cooked. It belongs to the same cruciferous family as broccoli and kale, so it packs real nutritional punch for just 25 calories per 100g. Home cooks love it raw in salads, wilted into pasta, or scattered over hot pizza straight from the oven.
Nutrition
≈ 3 Calories and 0.1g fat per tablespoon.
Arugula is surprisingly rich in vitamins K, A, and C for such a low-calorie green, supporting bone health, immune function, and skin. Its deep green color signals a good supply of folate and calcium, nutrients especially valuable for plant-forward diets. Like other cruciferous vegetables, it contains glucosinolates—natural plant compounds studied for their potential protective effects—as well as nitrates that may support healthy blood pressure. The fat content is minimal and the modest fiber helps with satiety, making arugula a genuinely nutrient-dense choice even when you toss just a couple of handfuls into a bowl. Nutrition per 100g via Spoonacular.
Culinary uses & pairings
Raw arugula is the heart of many Italian-inspired salads—toss it with shaved Parmesan, lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil, and cracked black pepper for a classic that takes under five minutes. It also works beautifully as a finishing green: pile it onto a flatbread or pizza the moment it comes out of the oven so the residual heat just barely wilts the leaves without killing their bite.
When you want something warmer, stir arugula into hot pasta during the last 30 seconds of cooking, or sauté it quickly in olive oil with garlic as a side dish—think of it as a peppery stand-in for spinach. It also makes a punchy addition to grain bowls, egg dishes, and sandwiches, and can be blended into a bold arugula pesto that pairs especially well with grilled chicken or roasted potatoes.
Pairs well with
Substitutions
Buying & storage
Look for arugula with vivid, deep-green leaves that feel perky and crisp, not slimy or yellowing at the edges. Smaller, younger leaves tend to be more tender and less bitter, while larger, more mature leaves pack a fiercer pepper punch—both are great depending on the dish. Baby arugula sold in clamshell containers is convenient and consistently tender, while loose bunched arugula at farmers’ markets often has more pronounced flavor. Avoid any bags with excessive moisture pooling at the bottom, which signals the leaves are already starting to break down.
Varieties
- Baby Arugula: Harvested young for tender, mildly peppery leaves; the most common supermarket form and ideal for raw salads.
- Wild Arugula (Sylvetta): Smaller, more deeply lobed leaves with a noticeably stronger, more complex pepper and nutty flavor; prized at farmers’ markets and in Italian cooking.
- Mature Arugula: Fully grown standard arugula with broad leaves and an assertive bite; best cooked or mixed with milder greens to balance the sharpness.
Recipes using arugula
204 recipes across our recipe sites use arugula. A few favorites:
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History & origin
Arugula has been eaten around the Mediterranean basin since at least Roman times, where it was considered both a food and an aphrodisiac. It thrived as a wild and cultivated green across Italy, where it became deeply embedded in the regional cuisines of Puglia, Campania, and Lazio. Despite this ancient history, arugula was virtually unknown to most American home cooks until the 1980s and ’90s, when the rise of Italian-inspired restaurant cooking and the farm-to-table movement pushed it into grocery stores and onto menus nationwide. Today it’s one of the most popular specialty salad greens in the US.
How it’s made
Arugula is a cool-season annual grown from seed that germinates quickly—often within a week—making it a favorite for home gardeners and small farms alike. It grows best in spring and fall when temperatures sit between 45°F and 65°F (7°C and 18°C); summer heat causes it to bolt rapidly, which turns the leaves intensely bitter and sends the plant to flower. Commercial growers use row covers to extend the season and harvest the leaves by cutting just above the growing point, allowing multiple cuts from a single planting in what’s known as a cut-and-come-again method. Baby arugula is simply harvested earlier and more frequently, while wild arugula (Sylvetta) is a different species altogether—Diplotaxis tenuifolia—that is perennial, slower-growing, and more drought-tolerant.
Good to know
- Arugula’s sharp flavor comes from glucosinolates, the same sulfur compounds responsible for the bite in mustard and horseradish.
- In Italy arugula is called rucola; in the UK it’s almost universally known as rocket, a name derived from the French roquette.
- Arugula bolts (goes to seed) so quickly in heat that a single warm week can transform a tender salad green into a bitter, flowering plant.
- The edible white or pale yellow flowers that appear when arugula bolts are completely edible and peppery—great scattered over salads or used as a garnish.
- Ancient Romans cultivated arugula in their gardens and reportedly mixed it with other greens and coriander seed as a seasoning blend.
