Cooking with Lettuce

[larry_stewart]

I just recently tried a new pasta dish, which was basically rigatoni with garlic, oil, fried lettuce ( boston, escarole, romaine..) and some parmesian cheese. Surprisingly, i loved the flavor and texture of the cooked lettuce. I was wondering If anyone else cooks with lettuce, and if so, what kinda dishes do u make with it??

larry

[elaine l]

I have used escarole, baby spinach in pasta dishes. Romaine I have grilled for salads. Did you mean deep fried? I have deep fried basil leaves for garnish and it's very tasty.

[miniman]

My Malaysian friend at uni used to include lettuce when he cooked hi rice. Delia Smith also has a recipe for a summer soup that uses lettuce - it is delicious.

[pdswife]

I've used it in place of rice or noodles with stir fry.

[BreezyCooking]

I cook quite often with Arugula.

As far as cooking with regular lettuces, one of my favorite dishes was one that my boss used to throw together for me after my waitress shift ended. We called it "Cooked Salad", & all it was was a couple of handfuls of leftover (as in unused, still in the fridge) salad greens combined with bean sprouts, hiziki seaweed, brown rice, & soy sauce all tossed on the griddle until wilted. May sound weird, but it sure was delicious.

[merstar]

I make a delicious Romaine and Bean Soup.

[Barbara L]

When we had dinner at kitchenelf's a couple weeks ago, she drizzled olive oil over romaine and other vegetables, and then she grilled them. I had never had grilled lettuce before. It was really good.

Barbara

[blissful]

I've been known to take my lettuces, all kinds, when they have past their best days, trim them and put them in the food processor to a fine grind. I add them to beef vegetable soup, or vegetable soup, for the texture and the nutrients.
I am thinking today I'll do the same thing with the lettuce and add it to some gaspacho I've been wanting to make with all my tomatoes that are ripening on the counter. ~Bliss

[Robt]

I used to make a side dish that I haven't done in years.

Shave Iceberg like you were making Kraut, long skinny nearly hair like slivers, sweat in butter, add fresh or frozen peasto just warm, salt and white pepper.

I served this alongside mild fish.

I guess it was more than OK because I did it many times.

[Robo410]

escarole is great in soups
all the dark green leafies are naturals for saute's or in soups etc and pasta dishes too.
Grilled romaine is very good with a caesar style vinaigrette and parmesan
endive, white or red, is a wonderful "lettuce" to braise with broth and lemon butter
radiccio also grills or saute's nicely

almost forgot...any salad is great with a hot bacon vinaigrette ... wilts "cooks" the lettuce