When Life Hands You Lettuce....

[gardencrazy]

What do you do with it? Once again this is proving to be a banner year for lettuce for me. So what do you do with it all? The DH is not crazy about salads. Please post your favorite recipes using lettuce.

[chpwldmn]

The Chinese use lettuce in stir-fry. I can't say It tried it. Last year I had way too much lettuce and tried to give it away. I have no chicken or rabbits and the cats won't eat it. So most got composted. What a waste. I got smart and only grew a little this year.

[tweed]

Wilted Leaf Lettuce

Ingredients:

Leaf Lettuce, washed and cut to salad size
3-4 Green Onions, Coarsely Chopped
6 Slices Bacon, fully cooked and crumbled
Grease from the fried bacon
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix lettuce, crumbled bacon, onions, salt & pepper in large heat proof bowl.
Heat the grease, leftover from the fried bacon, in a frying pan, on stovetop until sizzling hot.
Using a metal spoon, pour drippings over salad and mix well.
Serve immediately.
Yum. Yum.

Steve

[Siegmund Family Farm]

2 slices of rye bread
1 hunk of liverwurst
1 slice of onion
1 or 2 pieces of lettuce and some mayonaise.
Best lunch you will ever eat:)

[gardencrazy]

Mmmm! What's not good with bacon & onions!

As for the liverwurst, the DH hates it, but I enjoy it. I bet I haven't had liverwurst in over a year. He's taking some night classes now so I'm on my own for dinner. Maybe wilted lettuce greens and a good liverwurst sandwich are in my near future!

[TastyofHasty]

Nice food recipe database ... here's lettuce:
http://www.bigoven.com/private/searchrecipes.aspx?title=lettuce

[uncasrabbit]

Stir fry it, very good!! Just treat it like greens - add to soups, etc. Make soup stock.

[camproses7]

Lettuce wraps! If you have large leaf lettuce, it makes a wonderful wrapping for terriyaki stir fry, or mediterranean flavor fillings, Mexican, etc. Less calories than tortillas, adds a refreshing bite to the filling.

[tughillcam]

2 slices of rye bread
1 hunk of liverwurst
1 slice of onion
1 or 2 pieces of lettuce and some mayonaise.
Best lunch you will ever eat:)

Aw man, that sounds great except the mayo part !

[Michelle8]

Tug, the only part of that sandwich that sounded good to me was the rye bread and the lettuce:D:o

[springfever]

well, michelle, the onion sounded ok. (smile)

[Emerald]

What Tweed said! Plus add a few sauted mushrooms and a chopped up hard boiled egg and (only if you like them) a few ANCHOVIES! Yummy! Salmagundi !

[pepperhead212]

Besides salads (which I can only eat so many of, despite having all of those delicious ingredients from the garden), I also make a lot of lettuce wraps, using Asian recipes, some calling for lettuce, but substituting lettuce for rice noodle wraps in others. This could also be done with Mexican fillings, though with those I really miss the corn tortilla, so I would rather have the lettuce as part of the filling.

I remember an article on lettuce in Saveur (http://www.saveur.com/solrSearchResults.jsp?q=lettuce&p=0&fq=Source:Saveur), which also gave a recipe for stir-fried lettuce (http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Stir-Fried-Iceberg-Lettuce), something we usually would not think about doing with lettuce. I didn't try it, as it looks like a mild dish (lol), but for somebody who doesn't like salad, it's worth a look!

I have my lettuce started and ready for the fall garden, along with all those greens again! Won't be long before I have more than I need...

[maggie c]

If you really have more lettuce than you can handle (which I did last year) wash it, put it in baggies and give it to your friends/neighbors/colleagues. Great way to make friends (and to use greens that would otherwise get composted!)

[gardencrazy]

Maggie, I used to sneak it into my inlaws' refrigerators! Kind of like sneaking a zucchini on your neighbor's porch! LOL!

Anyway, I'd steam the lettuce for a minute and then I'd mix it with a little onion. Then I tossed it in Ziplocks in the freezer.

[pepperhead212]

If you really have more lettuce than you can handle (which I did last year) wash it, put it in baggies and give it to your friends/neighbors/colleagues. Great way to make friends (and to use greens that would otherwise get composted!)
This is what I did with a BUNCH of greens last spring, though most people I gave them to had no idea what most of them were! Same with most of the herbs I trim back and take in, though most know what basil and rosemary are.