does anyone buy prepared salads?

want2bmortgage3

well its the last time i do. they are 1.49 on average for a bag of prewashed salad, which tastes of nothing and isnt very filling. i got a 99p bag from sainsburys crispy leaf or something and when i opened it, it didnt smell right. it was in date, but there was no leafy smell just a faint off-putting smell from the plastic perhaps. anyway it went straight in the bin what a waste of money.

i ended up with grated carrot and mayonnaise to go with my pizza. what else could i buy thats easy to preapare? a big lettuce is too much really and makes quite a mess washing and chopping. what about those small gem ones? or anything else? need to save money and a salad shouldnt be expensive.

EssexHebridean

Our farm shop do a box of baby salad leaves - it doesn't look much but nwhen you open the box the salad just sort of expands.....I get two salads for the pair of us from the one box and it's only a fraction more expensive than gthe supermarket bags which, as you say, tend towards blandness and only serve a single meal. In the summer I usually buy the multi packs of British grown Little Gems - they're delicious but I won't pay the amount they want for them in the winter months when they've been flown half way round the world and refridgerated to a point when they dont keep more than a few days.

Olliebeak

In the winter months (when we don't eat salad very much) I will buy a bag of 'Bistro Salad' (mixture of various salad leaves and grated beetroot) for around 90p in Asda. This will do both of us for 2 meals each - which has to be better than buying tasteless 'Iceberg' lettuce and allowing it to go yukky in the fridge.

Last summer, I grew my own salad leaves and was very pleased with myself. Will do the same again this year, but having learned last year, will not plant as many all at the same time. I do some really daft things sometimes, but don't usually do the same daft thing more than once!

PasturesNew

There was a TV programme about bags of pre-washed lettuce leaves (might be other stuff too). In the programme they showed how these things are grown abroad, washed in copious amounts of water and shipped here. I think the amount of water it takes to wash one bag would keep a local family in water for a week/month?

But the thing was, the locals had no water. The water plant was protected by high security fences and the poor locals lived just outside with no access to running water at all. Their country's precious resource was kept almost solely to wash salads for lazy Englanders.

I rarely bought them before, wouldn't now.

thriftlady_2

Lettuce is a summer veg so we don't eat it in the winter.

When we want salad in winter I make them out of red cabbage, white cabbage, carrots, chicory (Belgian endive), onion, grated root veg like celeriac, apple, dried fruit, oranges, celery (if I can find British). Lamb's lettuce and watercress are sometimes available in the winter. Home sprouted bean sprouts are another good source of fresh salad stuff.

Patchwork_Quilt

If we do have bagged salad, I get unwashed rocket, which tends to last a bit longer. You could add a splash of orange juice and some poppy seeds to grated carrot to make it more interesting. We like thinly sliced onion and thinly sliced tomato with balsamic vinegar (don't use as much as you think you'll need - it gets juicier).

EssexHebridean

The farm shop I use also sell locally grown rocket and watercress, both of which are delicious and I often buy a pack of each and combine for a delicious salad.

Pasturesnew - I think your point is good, but your final salvo a bit harsh. I don't buy prepared salad because I'm lazy - I buy it because MrEH won't eat a "lettuce" type salad, and quite honestly I too often find that sort of salad a bit bland. We like the flavour with the mixed leaves, but simply can't either afford or justify the amount of food waste that would occur if I was to buy the selection and prepare them myself. Also, I'm not sure where you're shopping but I've rarely if ever found any of these prepared salads that are grown in the sort of third world country that you are referring to?

tessie_bear

i only tend to eat salad in the summer ....the bags have gone up quite a lot imo....i often get the little gems as they have a great crunch and last in the fridge for a few days

grrmich

A very small white cabbage is 20-30p, and a round lettuce is 60-70p. I like to shred them into long thin bits and then pour some olive oil and white or red wine vinegar over as a dressing. (between 1 tsp to 1 tbsp of each) I use half the cabbage and lettuce to make a salad that lasts a couple of days, keep the left overs in the fridge, and then they should still be ok to make another salad in a few days time.

I also sometimes add the following if I can afford it.
Beetroot
Carrot
Tomatoes
Celery
Pine nuts
Watercress

KittyBoo_2

I used to buy them alot but always ended up with some soggy stuff at the end of the bag.
I buy iceberg lettuce, half a cucumber and some tomatoes for a quid off our local market.
Bags are getting so expensive and I can't be trusted in a supermarket so I don't go in.

rocketdog_2

I was advised to avoid pre-prepared and bagged salads when pregnant because of the high bacteria content in them. Thats why they go off so quickly when opened! I don't bother with them at all now since being told that. I just buy seperate salad items to prepare.