Growing Lettuce and Salad Bases

Learn from an Expert: Chef Kiah Gibian of Wilde Thyme on Salad Bases and Growing Lettuce

Let’s start off with the salad base most often used – lettuce. Did you know that:

• Salad greens originated from the Mediterranean basin around 79 A.D., when they found them on paintings of ancient Egyptian tombs.
• Lettuce was one of the first vegetables brought to the new world by Columbus, probably on his second voyage.
• There are hundreds of varieties of lettuce, which belong to the sunflower family. Romaine, red and green leaf, butterhead, spinach, mustard, arugula, bib, and iceberg lettuce are all different types of salad greens.
• Most lettuce greens are very nutritious. Two handfuls of green leaf lettuce contain a high source of Vitamins A, C, and K.
• Americans eat about 30 pounds of lettuce each year.

(source: p.3)

Salad Bases

You don’t even need to have a specific base to your salad. Think about a fruit salad – it’s just cut up fruit. You can do the same with veggies – cut up a variety of vegetables and add dressing. Or use a few kinds of beans as the “base”. Or think about salsa – it’s really a salad in itself. Experiment with making different salsas (ever add in mango? Or corn?)

Chef Kiah Gibian is a huge lover of salads. She loves to eat greens in all sorts of different ways. One of her favorite ways to eat salad is for breakfast! She loves to start her day with something savory, but you can eat this Breakfast Salad for lunch or dinner too. You can make this salad lots of different ways, mixing in your favorite salad ingredients, the best part is adding a fried egg on top! Start with fresh greens as the base, add some sautéed sweet potatoes and onions, maybe some cheese or bacon if you eat that, any other fresh vegetables you might have (shredded carrot or tomato), adding a fried egg on top, and poof! You have breakfast in a salad! One of her secrets to making it taste so good is using fresh and local ingredients.