Lettuce: It's What's For Dinner

When people tell others that they are vegetarian, they are often asked, "What do you eat then? Lettuce?" Last night, my answer would have been, "Yes. I eat lettuce. I eat it raw and I eat it cooked. And it is gooood."

The last vegetable left in my freezer, not counting some edamame and pureed Cushaw squash, was a half-package of green peas. The vegetables in my refrigerator, from last week's trip to the Farmer's Market and Friday's CSA share, included half a head of Romaine lettuce, two heads of red leaf lettuce, half a cucumber, two bags of mixed baby greens that could be eaten raw or cooked, two bunches of Easter egg radishes, and some local green (I'itoi) onions.

I ended up with duplicates of some CSA share items by trading out the items I didn't want. I still have a monster pumpkin waiting to be cooked so I certainly didn't need another acorn squash. I have grapefruit on my own tree so I traded the CSA grapefruit. And I've still got a ristra of my own dried red chiles so those were traded as well.

What this means, though, is that my produce choices this week are heavy on the greens. One of the lettuces was actually from last Tuesday's surplus and it was definitely past its prime. Even though I'm not officially participating in Crunchy Chicken's Food Waste Reduction Challenge, I always strive to minimize waste in the kitchen. So, I wanted to salvage what I could from the head of lettuce. I trimmed off the really wilted parts and used the rest.

An easy recipe that will use the tough outer leaves of Romaine lettuce, limp leaves, and even lettuce ribs is my Lettuce & Pea Chiffonade. For dinner last night, I cleaned up the remaining Romaine lettuce, the limp red leaf lettuce, and one bag of mixed baby greens. Crisp fresh leaves went into the salad bowl. Limp leaves, ribs, and stems from the baby greens were cooked.

The salad was fleshed out with some beautiful Easter Egg radishes and cucumber. Leftover vegan Ranch dressing topped it off, with some pickled Jerusalem artichokes tucked in on the side. (For some additional color, I had a couple of pieces of Japanese pumpkin in soy sauce.)



Here is the recipe for cooking lettuce. As I showed in the post about making sauerkraut, a "chiffonade" is when you stack and roll leaves together and thinly slice them crossways into fine even shreds. That is how the lettuce leaves are prepared in this recipe, although the stems and ribs were just sliced and diced.

Lettuce & Pea Chiffonade
Outer leaves and ribs of lettuce, enough to equal about 2 cups when cut
1 onion, diced, or 1 bunch green onions, sliced
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/2 tsp sugar, optional
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbs soy milk

Heat a small amount of water in a skillet over medium-high heat.
Saute lettuce and onions in water until lettuce is limp and onion is translucent.
Add peas and cook for 30 seconds.
Season with sugar, salt and pepper. Stir and cook for another minute.
Add soy milk. Stir and cook for 30 seconds.
Serve hot.