Killer Salad Recipes

Not every salad contains lettuce or other salad greens, but many do, so here’s a guide to some lettuce varieties and salad greens available. Maybe you will find something new that you’d like to try adding to your own salads. The list is by no means complete, and if you’d like to add something to the list you can do that commenting on the article.

Arugula is also called rocket, and is very popular in salads. It has small dark green lobed leaves and a mild peppery, slightly bitter, flavour. It’s delicious with Cray fish. It can be bought in small bunches and is also found in commercial salad mixes.

Butter lettuce has fairly large, delicate, loose green leaves. It is also called Boston or Bibb lettuce. It can be quite expensive, but it has lots of flavour and is a great addition to a summer salad.

Cress comes in many varieties. It is best known as watercress, but there is also pepper cress, garden cress and broad leaf cress. All are known for their sweet, spicy flavours. Cress is a popular addition to egg salads.

Endive has smooth, cream coloured, slender leaves with pointed heads and a slightly bitter flavour. Choose heads with yellow tips as those with green tips are more bitter. Red Endive is a crunchy new French variety which blends sweet and bitter flavors.

Fava tips are mild in flavour and have a buttery texture.

Frisée has slender curly leaves and is found in commercial salad mixes. A relative of the dandelion, frisée is considered ‘bitter’ and, therefore, helpful with digestion.

Iceburg Lettuce is a medium sized crisphead lettuce, with a tender heart. Iceburg is one of the most popular salad ingredients, mainly due to its crispness and longevity in the refrigerator, but it is not as flavoursome as other lettuce varieties.

Kale comes in many varieties and colours, all with frilly leaves. Kale is at its best during the winter months and has a mild cabbage-like flavour.

Loose leaf lettuce comes in varieties like oak leaf, red leaf and green leaf, and is a type of lettuce that does not form heads. Instead, they are loosely packed and joined at the stem. Its leaves can be ruffled or smooth, and it has a mild, delicate taste and medium crispness.

Mache or lamb’s lettuce has small, green, finger like leaves that are extremely perishable. Also known as corn salad or field salad lettuce, Mache has a sweet, mild nutty flavou.

Mizuna is also called “kyona.” It has dandelion-like, jagged edged, tender leaves with a mild, sweet peppery flavour. The mildest of the mustard greens, Mizuna has nice crunchy stems.

Mustard greens are a rich dark green colour and, when sold fresh, can be used like spinach. The plant itself is a cross between a strain of cabbage and black mustard, which is why these greens have a strong mustard flavour.

Radicchio is a variety of red chicory whose origins are in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Radicchio has burgundy red leaves with white ribs, with a slightly bitter flavour. Radicchio is great mixed with other salad greens.

Romaine lettuce is the classic lettuce used in Caesar salads. It has good flavour and crunch plus a good shelf life in the refrigerator. It has long and narrow leaves with firm ribs down their centres. Romaine lettuce is said to have originated on the Aegean island of Cos, which is why it is also known as Cos lettuce.

Shingiku is an Asian green. A member of the chrysanthemum family, it has delicate fern like leaves that add a slight retsina* flavour to a salad. *Retsina is a Greek wine.

Spinach has emerald green leaves that are generally oval but sometimes heart-shaped, and a slightly bitter flavour. It is a good source of Vitamin A. It is rich in iron, calcium and protein, Popeye chose well

Tatsoi is a Chinese green from the cabbage family. It has shiny, dark, spoon-shaped leaves and a peppery flavour.

A newer trend that has emerged is to garnish salads with microgreens or micro leaves, you can go here to find out more about microgreens