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How to Select
Salad
by Jeanie Rose, a.k.a. “Mom”
Welcome to the exciting world of fresh-made, where I am revealing
secrets to make you the outstanding salad maker in town. After a
fine homemade dressing, the next important key to a great salad is
a great green.
I grew up in a household where “salad” meant a slab of iceberg
lettuce with some goo on top that passed for dressing. Not until I
had a household of my own, complete with garden, did I take salads
seriously. Now I can turn a salad into a whole meal and be
supremely satisfied. So, on with the greens.
What Are We Looking
For? Organic and Fresh
Is this just
an issue of snobbery? Not at all! Foods grown with organic methods
are higher in nutrients than their conventional counterparts. If
you are going to eat, eat the foods with highest value. This is
especially important with salad greens, since you are not going to
consume a quarter of a pound of them at a meal. The little amount
you consume needs to count.
Also, did you know that the fresher the vegetable, the higher the
nutrient value? As soon as a vegetable is harvested, it begins a
slow decline on the nutrient scale. Good argument for your own
garden, right?
If you are not blessed with garden space right now, then look for a
nearby farmers’ market. Usually you can find a farmer who is not
using pesticides. When they bring their crops to the market,
usually those crops are harvested that very day. Also, the market
farmers often grow heirloom varieties that you will not find in
supermarkets. More choice, more colors, more textures …
lovely!
Some supermarkets carry organic greens. If you don’t have a garden,
if there is no farmers’ market, then this is your next choice. Find
out from the produce manager when the greens come in. Shop that
day. Bagged assortments of greens have become popular. This is the
least-desirable choice. These bags of lettuce have been gassed to
prolong their shelf life. We don’t know the nutritional impact of
these inert gases, but they do affect the flavor of the
greens.
Rich in
Folate
If you
are working to increase your folate with greens, not all greens are
equal. The common green leaf and red leaf lettuces have little
nutritional value. Fortunately, a few score well, are tasty, and
available: romaine, butterhead, and spinach.
Romaine
is that nicely headed, dark
green number that they use for Caesar salad. Two cups of romaine
offers about one-third of the RDA of folate. This lettuce seems to
be readily available in all the stores, probably because of the
Caesar craze of the last decade. The inner leaves are the crispest,
but after you’ve mixed the inner and outer leaves, the overall
effect is “crisp”. Romaine is a great standard lettuce for any kind
of salad, any kind of sandwich. Since we’re looking for folate, we
really lucked out on this one.
Butterhead
– Two cups of butterhead
lettuce will give you about 20% of the daily recommended allowance
of folate, a key depression-fighting nutrient.
Spinach
– Two cups of spinach will
give you nearly one-third of the RDA of folate and about 15% of the
RDA of magnesium. The rub with the magnesium, however, is that
spinach is high in oxalates, which bind to magnesium and keep it
from being absorbed. But spinach is a good source of
folate.
Arugula – A
Must-Have
Every salad needs arugula. I didn’t write the book
Rebuild from Depression in
Motherhood.
My daughter did. She points out that arugula is not exceptional in
terms of its nutrient content. Of course, I point out that I will
eat a lot more salads if my salad has arugula in it. It is a basic
green in Italian salads. The same sweety who introduced me to
balsamic vinegar also introduced me to arugula. The flavor is
distinct and sharp and really brings a salad to life. And, if
you’re eating Italian food, this is a must.
When I was introduced to this green, I
thought, “I will never be satisfied with a salad again unless it
has arugula in it.” Of course, it was nowhere to be found except in
the yard of this friend who wasn’t exactly in the neighborhood.
That family laughed at me, saying that the plant is so prolific
that it was coming up in the cracks of their driveway. Since
growing it myself, I have to say “Yes, indeed, very
prolific.”
So grow your own or look for it at the farmers’ markets.
Occasionally it is available as a seasonal item in grocery
stores.
Arugula is so easy
to grow, consider doing so, even if in a pot by your back door. The
seeds are available in most garden seed catalogues. And once you
let a plant go to seed, you’ll never have to plant again. Of
course, watch the driveway cracks, because you never know where
these little seeds are going to germinate.
If you’re into making Italian-type
subs, this is a super addition. In fact, if you try this, by next
month you’ll have a pot of arugula by your back door or in your
greenhouse window.
Other Wonderful
Lettuces
While
they are not the mother-lode of folate, they are rich in other
vitamins and minerals. So don’t give up on them, but do look for
organically-grown heirloom varieties. As a general rule, you will
do better nutritionally and taste-wise. These lettuces also provide
much needed fiber to your diet.
So if you garden, you’ve probably figured out that it takes some
months to produce a head of Romaine while the leaf lettuces could
be ready in six weeks. Eat your leaf lettuce and arugula while you
wait for the romaine.
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IMPORTANT
DISCLAIMER: Information on this web
site is provided for informational purposes only and is not
intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician
or other healthcare professional. Consult with your physician
before making any changes to your diet.