Quick tips- Lettuce

Easy salad tips

As far as fresh lettuce goes, the darker the leaves, the longer it'll keep, and the healthier it is. Give up on the traditional head lettuce if shelf life is a priority. People ask me about the difference between tearing vs. cutting lettuce, too. Tearing will generally give you more holding time, because as you tear a leaf it tends to split along natural cell walls, which minimizes browning. Cutting, on the other had, arbitrarily rips through the middle of cells, but using a sharp knife will only cut a few cells and will avoid crushing the cells around the cut.

Here's how I like to prep romaine lettuce the fast, easy way- wash it but leave it intact, hold the stem with one hand while you split just the largest visible ribs lengthwise with your chef's knife, 3 or 4 cuts is plenty. Sliding your other hand down to hold the lettuce together, cut across the head in 1" bite-sized slices to produce as much lettuce as you're going to eat that day. This way you'll get nice even bite-sized pieces without large chunks of rib in some of them, and you've got a still mostly intact chunk for another meal. Let them drain on paper towels, or use a salad spinner if you have one and feel like washing it later. I like easy myself, but they sure are fun to use...

As far as the bagged stuff, you have to rinse it for it to have any flavor. I don't care how clean and 'ready to eat' the bag says it is, a lot of moisture is removed during processing to lengthen shelf life. By giving it a quick rinse, you reconstitute it, in a way. Just drain it well, and always store lettuce as dry as possible and keep it covered, especially if it's cut.

Hope that helps!