By Cheryl Tallman
www.FreshBaby.com
You may have heard people comment that lettuce is just empty calories. This is just not true. While iceberg lettuce is not a nutritional powerhouse, other salad greens are nutritional champions.
As a general rule, the darker the leaves, the more nutritious the salad green. Just as an example, romaine and watercress have seven times as much beta-carotene, two to four times as much calcium and twice the amount of potassium as iceberg lettuce.
By simply choosing a variety of salad greens you use in your salads, you can enhance the nutritional content and enjoy new tastes and textures. Give it try!
At the market: You want to buy salad greens that have been picked recently. A great place to buy salad greens is a farmer's market or farm stand. Look for clean, fresh looking cut ends. You don't want anything that looks rusty, dried-out or wilted. Crisp, bright looking leaves are good too. Firm or solid feeling heads of lettuce are best.
Storage at home: For wilt-free lettuce with maximum crunch thoroughly wash and dry your lettuce as soon you bring it home. Roll the leaves in several layers of paper towels or a clean kitchen towel, seal in a plastic bag, and store in the "crisper" of your refrigerator for up to 1 week. Iceberg lettuce will keep up to 2 weeks.
Here are some simple, delicious salad green ideas for the whole family:
Lettuce Cups: Both Boston and Bibb lettuce make perfect "cups" for grilled fish, shrimp or tofu. Serve with diced vegetables and your favorite salad dressing to drizzle on top. These lettuce cups also make "green" taco shells, just fill them up with all your favorite taco fix-ens -- muy delicioso!
Tossed Salads: Iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and onions are the traditional ingredients for a tossed salad. There are many more exciting options. Starting with a nice variety of salad greens in your bowl, add a few mix-in items and you'll transform the tired tossed salad into a great side dish.
Here are some of our favorite tossed salad mix-in combinations:
Cooked corn, black beans, diced red peppers, and crumbled tortilla chips
Mandarin oranges, diced green onions, and blanched almond pieces
Diced pears, chopped ...
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