It's much different from store-bought lettuce. It's thinner, softer, doesn't really have a crunch to it. But then, that might also be because I pick it young, and I grow it in the shade to keep it from turning bitter. Either way, just because it's different doesn't mean it's bad. It's delicious, and it makes me really proud to be able to feed my family with the plants I've grown.
I've been making a delicious and simple dressing for it lately, too. Basically, it's 1 part extra virgin olive oil, 1 part mild olive oil, and one part balsamic vinegar. Whisk in a bowl until a nice emulsion has formed, salt and pepper to taste, and enjoy!
When I have more ambition, I plan on making some low carb creamy dressings that don't have any yucky seed oils. I love ranch dressing, but we stopped buying store-bought condiments a long time ago. It's impossible to find any dressing or mayo in the store that doesn't have soy or canola oil in it. Yuck. I already make my own mayo out of olive oil, and there's a decent looking recipe for ranch dressing in Dana Carpender's 500 low carb recipe book that uses mayo, so I'll give that one a try sometime.
Until then, we're really enjoying our fresh lettuce with balsamic vinaigrette.
I can actually see that the lettuce is thinner. I guess you are lucky that you can grow it and eat it :)
ReplyDelete