Vegetable
Lettuce
LechugaEnciamLactuca sativa
It's nearly all water, which is why local lettuce wins: freshly picked, it crunches, while one that spends days in a lorry arrives tired. It hates strong heat: in August it bolts and turns bitter.
When
Around: Mar–Jul · Sept–Nov · At its best: Apr–Jun
Around: all year · At its best: Apr–Jun
Around: Mar–May · Sept–Jan · At its best: Oct–Dec
Around here
At Catalan markets you'll find all kinds: romaine, marvel of four seasons, oak leaf, little gem, butterhead… Catalan salad is built on it, with tomato, onion, olives and cured sausage. Not xató, though: that one is made with endive.
At the market
- Taut, crisp leaves, with no brown edges or limp patches.
- Check the stem: a pale, moist cut, not brown or slimy.
- It should feel heavy for its size, with a tight heart.
- Be wary of ones with the outer leaves stripped off: it often hides their age.
At home
- In the fridge's salad drawer, in a bag or a tub lined with kitchen paper.
- Wash and dry it well before storing: damp makes it rot.
- Whole, it lasts four or five days; soft-leaved types, less.
- If it's gone limp, leave it in iced water for ten minutes and it perks up.
If you have too much
- Don't freeze it raw: it turns into a wet rag.
- Make it into a soup with potato and onion: that does freeze.
- Halve little gems and put them on the griddle or grill.
In the kitchen
- Catalan salad, with tomato, onion, olives and cured sausage.
- Little gems with anchovies, garlic and good oil.
- Griddled little gems with vinaigrette.
- Whole leaves as wraps for mince or rice.
- Lettuce soup with peas and mint.
What it brings
Per 100 g, raw.
- Energy
- 17 kcal
- Water
- 95% water
- Carbs
- 3.3 g
- Sugars
- 1.2 g
- Fibre
- 2.1 g
- Protein
- 1.2 g
Stands out for
- High in vitamin K102.5 µg · 137% of what you need in a day
- High in folate136 µg · 68% of what you need in a day
- High in vitamin A436 µg · 55% of what you need in a day
Data from the USDA (FoodData Central). See the full table ↗ · How we decide what stands out
In the family recipes
- Ensalada de lechuga Grandma's
The recipes are in Spanish.
Goes with
- TomatoJun–OctAn August tomato and a January one only share the colour. And a good tomato's worst enemy isn't winter: it's your fridge.
- CucumberJun–SeptBotanically it's a fruit, like its cousin the melon. What it tells you most is about cold: it likes being cool, but in a very cold fridge it goes soft and pitted.
- AsparagusMar–JunWhite and green asparagus are the same plant: the white kind grows buried in soil and never sees the sun. The thin, bitter one that pops up wild along field edges is another species.