Shortage of lettuces - alternative salads

Caterina

Hello all!

I keep seeing posts and news about the Great Lettuce Shortage and thought, why not start an alternative, UK based, self help thread for those salad lovers who are not sure what to do?

I have just finished my lunch that included a lovely salad comprising of finely chopped savoy cabbage, sliced onion, grated carrot (so far so coleslaw).

I added a handful of leaves that I picked from the garden, containing: a few leaves of land cress, which I grow, or should I say, it grows itself and lasts forever, a clump of chickweed that is growing wild in one of my pots, a few small leaves from young dandelion plants. I washed them thoroughly and chopped them finely and in they went.

Other things that make salad: basically any vegetables, although I would rather not use raw mushrooms as I read somewhere that they can be toxic.

In terms of self help, the easiest and most basic thing anyone can do is SPROUT seeds. Brown or green lentils are very easy and quick, and easy to find in any shop. Red lentils don't work as they are split. Wheat and spelt can be sprouted, I haven't tried oats yet but it should work. If you can get hold of special sprouting seeds, like alfalfa, broccoli etc it is good too. Googling instructions on how to sprout seeds will bring up a lot of info.

Finely chopped celery, grated celeriac, or beetroot, or swede, all these add flavour, texture and colour to a salad. Grated apple with chopped red cabbage, a few chopped walnuts, a few raisins and a few chunks of Stilton (to keep it UK based, otherwise Roquefort and Gorgonzola go equally well), make a fantastic salad.

Thinly sliced broccoli and cauliflower florets, finely chopped spinach leaves and toasted seeds are very nice.

Pea shoots can be grown from marrowfat peas, those that you can buy in packets for mushy peas. Just sprout them, or if you want them taller plant them in a box, in a thin layer of soil, then cut the shoots when they come up.

Time to plant a few radishes, the leaves can add some greenery and the radishes themselves grow so fast, a pot on a windowsill is sufficient for a good few.

For a good UK based dressing if you don't want to use olive oil, unrefined rapeseed oil is very tasty. With a good cider vinegar and a bit of English mustard and local honey, perfect dressing for any self-respecting salad.

I could go on and on, but I think it would be great if others could contribute their ideas!

Happy Make Do and Eat! :rotfl:

freyasmum

Love these ideas, thank you!

I came to suggest planting the marrow fat peas for pea shoots (which I adore! :drool: ) and am leaving with lots of scrumptious ideas!

Lynplatinum

Hiya
I had Italian neighbours for many years and they taught me these:

Pea Salad:
Frozen peas - cooked
Cucumber diced small - can use green beans cooked and diced the same
mint chopped + equal quantities of olive oil and vinegar (red or white wine) + salt and pepper + a touch of sugar OR a teaspoon of mint sauce thinned out with water and a spot of sugar.

Mix together and leave to stand for about half hour (is ok next day if refrigerated)

Green bean salad (OK with frozen ones)

cook beans - make a vinaigrette using dijon mustard - slice beans and spring onions or red onions very thinly. leave for half an hour or so to marinade

Then there are all their salads with beans such a Borllotti and Canelini!!
Please excuse spelling - spell check is no help and, unfortunately, I wasn't born Italian!
Enjoy folks

Islandmaid

Really lovely ideas.

I like Cous Cous mixed with finely chopped spring onion, cucumber, peppers, seeded tomato and whatever soft herbs I have, coriander is my fav - a glug of olive or rapeseed oil and the juice of a lemon all mixed in



Also, as Catrina mentioned Celariac makes a lovely salad (Remoulade) and it is Celariac season now

Another fave it very finely sliced Fennel with a light lemon dressing

Mouth is watering now :rotfl:

Pop_Up_Pirate

OP, I agree with your 99% of your post. We can make very tasty salads with UK grown produce and it will be healthier too as not heavily farmed.

Just the rapeseed oil is not a good idea in terms of health. Rapeseed oil inflames your body with foreign, genetically engineered DNA, trans fats, and toxic chemical residues. It is also a plague on the environment and a threat to organic farming and should be avoided
Stick with olive oil, walnut oil or avocado oil for salads.

caronc

Carrot, raisin and walnut (or cashews or peanuts) in an oil and vinegar dressing tasty and simple

PasturesNew

Grated raw carrot's very easy/achievable.

I'm not a big fan of salad, never seen the point of most of it ... especially that lettuce stuff.

Coleslaw's possible, in all its guises.

katkin

Great ideas thanks.

I made for tonight's meal a finely shredded red cabbage, grated carrot and slithers of red onion with chopped dried cranberries in it. Dressed with balsamic vinaigrette and plenty of back pepper and little salt. I discovered this one st the end of last year and have made it a lot since. It's delicious, crunchy, keeps for a few days undressed, though the carrots go purple.

I'm looking towards anything raw that's safe to eat raw to turn into salads, but even things like roasted veg, mushrooms, butternut etc and be mixed in with raw ingredients for a tasty salad.

I loath cooked spinach even the frozen stuff, happy to have it just and no more wilted in a hot dish, but love it in salads raw. Still seen plenty on the shelves, same with kale that can be eaten raw too. Finely shredded Brussels work too.

I seldom not dress a salad so will get creative with dressings and toppings. if off season produce becomes restricted it may be easier to use what we can get cheaply from the UK and dress it more interestingly.

It made me realise I need too grow my one this year.

Caterina

Pop_Up_Pirate wrote: »

OP, I agree with your 99% of your post. We can make very tasty salads with UK grown produce and it will be healthier too as not heavily farmed.

Just the rapeseed oil is not a good idea in terms of health. Rapeseed oil inflames your body with foreign, genetically engineered DNA, trans fats, and toxic chemical residues. It is also a plague on the environment and a threat to organic farming and should be avoided
Stick with olive oil, walnut oil or avocado oil for salads.

That's really interesting (and scary, too!). I put rapeseed oil because it is UK produced, just to remain with the local produce theme and not dependent from imports. I didn't know that rapeseed is so bad. Even the unrefined stuff that they promote as "healthy"?

I have always used olive oil and will keep doing do, for as long as I can find it available!

Pop_Up_Pirate

Caterina wrote: »

That's really interesting (and scary, too!). I put rapeseed oil because it is UK produced, just to remain with the local produce theme and not dependent from imports. I didn't know that rapeseed is so bad. Even the unrefined stuff that they promote as "healthy"?

I have always used olive oil and will keep doing do, for as long as I can find it available!

Definitely do a little research into cooking oils, where they came from and why they are being sold.
Its now beginning to come to light the massive damage those oils have done to people and I hope it won't be long before they are taken off our shelves.

moneyistooshorttomention

I don't remember rapeseed oil as being one of the ones mentioned in recent articles about oil - though that may be a word I read straight past of course.

I remember vegetable oils generally as being deemed a bad idea in those articles - something to do with plaque forming in the brain (ie could lead to dementia).

From memory - I think it was something to do with the way these oils are processed, rather than the oils themselves per se? But I may be wrong on that.

I know I won't buy conventional rapeseed oil - as so much rapeseed is g*netically modified. But I have been buying the organic version.

Though these days - the oils I use are genuine olive oil, coconut oil and the occasional bit of sesame oil. Must get into using ghee (the normal variety - as the non-dairy variety includes palm oil I seem to recall).