Know Your Salad Greens

Posted by Grandma Jeanne on January 12, 2006

It took me years to understand the different salad greens available. When I was a kid, lettuce was lettuce. I didn’t know there was anything other than what we called lettuce – as in iceberg lettuce.

Here is some info about the various salad greens available:

Belgian Endive Lettuce
Belgian endive is also called French endive. It can be sliced lengthwise or crosswise into a salad. It is a straight, pale, slender leaf, 6 inches or more in length. Endive can be eaten alone or with other greens.

Bibb Lettuce
Bibb lettuce is also known as limestone lettuce. It is smaller and more delicate than Boston lettuce, but it has something of the same shape and delicious flavor. Often called the royalty of lettuce, this variety has tender leaves and a delicate flavor. Use the whole leaf in a salad.

Boston Lettuce
Boston lettuce is also known as butterhead lettuce. It has velvety, spreading leaves that can be easily separated. It is a loosely formed lettuce and is light green with a light yellow heart and a buttery taste. This tender lettuce will do much for a salad.

Curly Endive Lettuce
Curly endive is also known as chicory. It has a maze of narrow, thin, twisted leaves, shading from dark green at the edges to pale yellow. Often used with grapefruit and orange sections or tomatoes. Has a sharp almost bitter tang.

Escarole Lettuce
Escarole lettuce has broad, dark green leaves edging into yellow that are slightly curly. It has a mildly bitter taste and is often used in Italian salads.

Iceberg Lettuce
Iceberg lettuce is the most familiar of the greens. It is a firm, tight, compact head of light-green leaves.

Leaf Lettuce
Leaf lettuce is a favorite with the home gardener. A crisp lettuce, which branches into large leaves from a small stalk, it has a more pronounced taste than iceberg lettuce. One variety has red-tinged edges.

Romaine Lettuce
Romaine lettuce is also known as cos lettuce. It is more strongly flavored than many other varieties of lettuce. It has long spoon-shaped leaves that are coarser and crisper than many types of lettuce. It adds tang to a salad. Good served with tomatoes and avocados.

Spinach
This oft-maligned green is not a lettuce, but it makes a good salad by itself or in combination with other greens. In the same family as spinach are mustard, dandelion and turnip greens, kale, swiss chard, and collards.

Watercress Lettuce
Watercress lettuce is a deep green vegetable with an almost peppery flavor and is considered a delicacy for sandwiches.