I want to invent a new salad, what other leaves are edible besides lettuce?!
I want to invent a new salad, what other leaves are edible besides lettuce?
Salads sometimes seem to boring, it seems as though lettuce is the only leaves one can eat. Some slads have spanish, but I'm sure there's more. What are leaves that one can eat, and where can I get them?
Answers:
Things you can get in your normal grocery store-
Lettuce
Spinach
Kale
Cabbage
Endive
Parsley
Dandelion
Celery (the leafy tops are good in a salad)
broccoli celarie vine leaves
bay leaves, cabbage leaves mint leaves.
A recipe my mum uses for a great salad comprises of gourmet lettuce (which can be bought in packs) mixed in with sun dried tomatoes, pitted kalamata olives, spanish onion, avacado, finely chopped cucumber, topped with small chopped camembert cheese. If you like you can add a little balsamic vinegar, but I think that's a little too strong and can be a little over powering.
Spinach leaves?
how about kale?
how about zuchini flowers? very colourful and unusual. they only have a short season and I'm not sure when that is but i have seen them in my fruit shop from time to time.
I love and swear by spinach, or as you call it "spanish." I've pretty much cut lettuce out of my diet and use spinach on sandwiches, etc.
Take a stroll down the produce isle and see what else there is.
Or, try skipping the leaves all together. My brother-in-law went to Greece and, quite contrary to the "greek salads" served here in the US, was served a bowl full of tomatoes, peppers, onions, croutons, and large chunks of cheese and meat (er..he's not one of us, forgive him).
Break the rules!
cabbage, mint, celery, brocolli, cucumber, tomato, potato.
ok the last few are not really "leaves", but they do great salad. most supermarket or grocery store should have them. very common.
Dandelions, but you have to cook them first..think young leaves are less bitter than older leaves (and the flower buds, unopened).
baby spinach
Herbs - basil, parley, mint, corriander etc.
roquette
There are also many types of lettuce.
Go to a big supermarket and take a look around.
swiss chard is great in a salad. I also love to load a salad up with raw veggies, such as jicama, celeriac, kolrabi, sunchokes, beets, artichoke, hearts of palm, brocolli, cauliflower, radish, snow peas, green peas, etc. Seaweed adds great flavor to. Try arame, kombu, or wakame in a salad. Great with loads of fresh sprouts. Try home sprouting-you can sprout fennungreek, radish, chickpea, green pea, yellow pea, chia, clover, mung, alfalfa, sunflower, almond, lentil, etc. I love a salad with a large variety of sprouts. You can sprout seeds and harvest them in as little as two days! Yummy, crunchy, and teaming with beneficial enzymes.
Rocket salad but why not try other things than just green salad? Many examples have already been mentionned above but how about Aubergines,lentils,cauliflower... peppers aso.
RAW SPINACH, ENDIVE, MACHE, CHIVES, SORREL, WATERCRESS, PARSLEY, GREEN FENNEL, BASIL, DILL.
u could check in the suermarkts both fresh and refrigirated sections
i could give u the website fo the sald leaf seeds
dont know if that would help u
http://www.nvsuk.org.uk/garden_equipment...
you can eat rose buds, they taste like apple
you can eat flowers and leaves from your garden
cabbage, spinach