Lettuce

 As people become more nutrition conscious, salads become an essential part of a healthy meal, or even as the meal itself. Part of the reason for the popularity of salads is the freshness of the principal ingredients. For years, iceberg lettuce dominated the choice of salad greens, but today other lettuces are also popular. Greens from other botanical families are becoming frequent additions to fresh salads, as well. If iceberg is the only type of lettuce you eat, you are choosing the least nutritious member of a family of nutritional champions. Any other lettuce or leafy green vegetable would be a better choice. Most other greens are also good sources of vitamin C, beta-carotene, folate, and dietary fibre as well as some calcium.

As a general rule, the darker green the leaves, the more nutritious the salad green. For example, romaine or watercress have seven to eight times as much beta-carotene, and two to four times the calcium, and twice the amount of potassium as iceberg lettuce. By varying the greens in your salads, you can enhance the nutritional content as well as vary the tastes and textures.

Varieties include:

Iceberg: firm green head with crisp, unblemished leaves

Butter crunch: soft, buttery and loosely-packed leaves

Mignonette: soft maroon-green head with unblemished, loosely packed leaves

Cos: crisp, elongated leaves tightly wrapped

Oakleaf: curly leaf-shaped red leaves

Coral (Green or red): small with curly green-purplish leaves and slightly bitter taste

Rocket: intense green colour and strong flavour

Chicory: outer leaves are green and bitter; pale inner leaves are tender and mild

Radicchio: ruby red miniature leaf with a slightly bitter flavour

Watercress: dark green, clover-like leaves with refreshing, peppery flavour