Salad Greens

Spring and summer is in view and you probably aren’t the only one starting to crave a fresh salad in place of those hearty, winter meals. While we won’t be sharing any crazy, delicious salad recipes today (they’ll come soon, we promise), we’re going to talk about the base and ultimate star of every salad: lettuce. Go to the supermarket and you’ll find everything from romaine to iceberg lettuce, spinach to arugula, mesclun to baby kale and so much more; however, not all salad greens are created equal. So let’s get talking.

As a general rule of thumb, the richer the color, the more nutrients the lettuce has. This is because lettuce has learned to adapt to the harsh UV rays produced by the sun. Sunlight is not a bad thing for the plant, in fact it makes the product greater! In order to fight off these damaging rays, the plant begins to produce more and more nutrients to help it thrive. These nutrients are then represented in the color and is the reason why leafy lettuce like arugula has a deep green color while romaine gets paler in color towards it’s core. This said, I’m sorry, but the classic iceberg lettuce is going to have the fewest nutrients partly due to its lack of exposure to sun and because it’s mainly water. Sunlight is like the gym for lettuce, it has to train to be the best it can be.

Another tip to really boost those nutrients in your salad is to, not cut but TEAR the lettuce with your hands. This motion, mimics the action of insects eating the lettuce; therefore, the lettuce, again, produces even more nutrients to help the plant stay alive despite the predators. Now just for the record, if you’re choosing a salad over a hotdog, you really can’t go wrong, but next time you’re shopping for your salad ingredients, choose the dark green and purple varieties to get more bang for your buck.