Going healthy with the humble lettuce

Crisp, green, leafy, curly, crunchy, bright and nutritious — no matter what you call it, we all know the humble lettuce and consume it as a healthy food. Lettuce is also known as the “weight loss food” or the “rabbit food” due to its low calorie count and high fibre content. Whether it is a burger at McDonald’s, the fatoush salad or the Mediterranean Greek salad, they are all incomplete without the crunchy green leafy lettuce. Lettuce leaves release a milk-like sap when cut and that’s how its name is derived from the Latin word lactuca, for milk. Lettuce is the generic name for the green leafy vegetable. It is one of the incredible sources of essential nutrients that are necessary for our wellbeing. This makes it one of the most sought after greens. The recipe below is a very simple and minimalistic example, which uses lettuce leaf as a wrap for the filling, making it a lettuce wrap sandwich. There are mainly two popular lettuce varieties: namely romaine and the iceberg lettuce. When you have an option between the two, choose the romaine lettuce as it has one of the highest nutritional values among lettuces, whereas iceberg has the lowest nutritional value. Romaine lettuce has less sugars and sodium, twice the calcium and protein, three times the iron and vitamin K, and eight times the vitamin C when compared to iceberg lettuce.While choosing the lettuce leaves, pick bright-coloured green and red leaves. Look for clean and fresh looking plants, with compact inner leaves. Avoid lettuce heads that are wilted and have rusty leaves. The wider and open shaped lettuce is healthier as compared to the one’s with closed leaves as the wider leaves absorb and produce more nutrients in the sunlight. You can refrigerate fresh lettuce in a plastic bag for up to a week, although each lettuce variety has its own keeping quality and shelf life. Preparing the lettuce before use is even more important than choosing a fresh lettuce head. An unclean or mishandled lettuce leaf can cause foreign particles in the form of insects and worms to land in your salad bowl. Even pathogens can survive on the leafy green easily as it is a ready to eat product and is rarely exposed to high temperatures before it is served. That’s the reason why you’ll find lettuce to feature on the list of “dirty dozen” foods —foods you should always buy organic. Luckily more and more organic lettuce is available nowadays. Thus, always wash the lettuce leaves individually in cold running water followed by a generic rinse with any ice cold salad wash. Then dry out the leaves in salad spinner to remove excess moisture so that the dressing coats evenly on the salad leaves. There are numerous varieties of lettuce leaves available of the shelf and they are easy to grow in your backyard garden as well. Broadly speaking, the prominent varieties of lettuce are icebergs, romaine, butter head— Boston, butter head— Bibb, green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, and oak leaf lettuce. Some other leaves like fricassee and baby spinach are not real lettuce, but are generally termed as such due to their resemblance to lettuce. Turkey Romaine WrapIngredientsRomaine lettuce 1 headTurkey breast 1 noCarrot 1 noCucumber 1 noRadicchio ½ headBell peppers red and yellow ½ no Beetroot ½ noOlive oil 2 tbsp        Salt to tasteCrushed black pepper To tasteDressingGarlic cloves 2-3 noLemon juice 2 tbspMayonnaise 1 cupDijon mustard 1 tspWorcestershire sauce 1 tspParmesan cheese ½ cupSalt ¼ tspGrounded black pepper ¼ tsp    MethodMarinate the turkey breast with oil, salt and crushed black pepper and refrigerate for one hour.Roast in a pre-heated oven at 180 Degree Celsius for an hour, check by piercing with a knife, if the juices run clear the turkey breast is cooked. Remove from oven and allow to stand for 15 minutes.Thinly slice the turkey breast or pull the meat to get shredded turkey meat. Keep aside.To prepare the dressing, combine finely chopped garlic, lemon juice, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, parmesan cheese, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Whisk to get a smooth dressing, adjust the seasoning and keep aside.Thinly shred carrot, cucumber, beetroot, bell peppers.Wash and spin dry the lettuce leaves. Place the shredded vegetables on each leaf followed by turkey meat on top.Drizzle the prepared dressing on top.Wrap the leaves to close the wrap, serve cold.