Joanne Roach (00:13)
Hello and welcome back to the Food for Kids podcast. I'm Joanne from the And this is a regular monthly slot where I run through some money saving tips to help us save the fresh seasonal fruit and veg that we've been buying to make it last longer, go further and store better. This idea is to help you get the best out of your fresh produce so that you end up spending less and wasting less. As you might know from previous months, I build my content around seasonal produce and my main product that I sell is a set of 12 children's books that are set in a veggie patch. Each of those books focuses on a different fruit or veg that's in season during that month. And because I chose them to make sure that children explore lots of different plant families during that whole year, I use the same produce in these episodes so that we cover them during the course of the year too.
In May, the book of the month is Lettuce and the Butterfly. So we're talking about lettuces and other salad leaves and greens. So whether you've grown some and you're picking them faster than you can eat them, or you're finding they're cheaper or tastier in the shops compared to other times of year, this is the episode to make the most of them. Lettuce and salads are quite fragile and watery. So they're one of the things that can go off fastest if we don't take care of them.
In fact, according to research by UK Harvest, UK households waste over 178 million bags of salad every year. And those bags are not cheap for the amount of contents they have, so it's worth knowing how to look after them properly.
The way to tackle lettuce and salad leaves and spinach depends a bit on how they come to you. If you're harvesting your own or getting it from a neighbour or farmer's market, it might come with dirt or grit in it. If you're getting it from a shop, it might come in a loose open bag if it's a floppy English lettuce or in a sealed bag or even in a plastic box.
Some salads in bags are already separated from their stems, loose in the bag and may be mixed in with other things, but with gas in the bags to slow the deterioration, whereas some lettuces might be in whole heads and either shrink wrapped or in bags with just one or two heads in. So the principles are the same, but there might be different ways to get to those principles. The principles are to keep them dry, but in a slightly moist environment which might sound like a contradiction but hear me out. Lettuces and salad leaves have a high moisture content and lots of surface area so there's lots of places for mould to grow or rotting to occur. So you want to make sure straight away that there aren't any manky bits in the pack or on the outside of the heads so they don't spread. And you want to make sure it isn't dripping in surface water where that could multiply. But because these crops have a high water content, if they dry out altogether, they will go floppy or wilty or crispy, none of which are very tasty. So you want to aim for them being clean and dry, but in an environment with a little moisture.
The easiest way to do this in practice is to either pop something absorbent in with them if they're enclosed to soak up any excess moisture without actually taking it out of the container or alternatively to have the end or the corner of the container or bag slightly open or with holes poked in it to allow a bit of excess moisture out or atmospheric moisture in. What this looks like in practice is that if you have a bag of salad from the supermarket that's sealed, keep it in that in the fridge as it will have a gas balance in there to slow down rotting. But check before you put it away by looking all around the pack that there aren't any slimy leaves in there. If there are, open the bag, remove any that have slimy bits on them, and if necessary, rinse and dry the ones that had contact with those.
Some people suggest that you wash salads as soon as you get home as a regular thing. But on the whole, this is just giving chance for water to get into crevices where it can go off. So I would only wash it if you have reason to think it needs it and it's going to go over otherwise.
If you do do this to stop the beginning of a rot, then pop a splash of vinegar into the water and soak the leaves in it for a few minutes before drying them off because the vinegar will help retard the bacteria and moulds from spreading. But if you don't have reason to think they need washing, then just wash salads when you're going to use them.
The exception to this is if you want to meal prep some stuff ahead of time and you know that you're someone who's much more likely to eat salad if you've prepped it ready to grab a handful, in which case this makes sense because yes, you are shortening the shelf life a bit, but the idea is to make it attractive to eat in the next few days anyway.
If you do rinse salad leaves ahead of time, always dry them as well as you can by either sticking them in a little salad spinner or lay them out on a clean tea towel, air dry it for a bit and dab with a dry kitchen roll before putting them away. This reduces the amount of water in there to start off any deterioration.
If you've opened a bag of salad, or you've washed and dried some, or you've cut some up to use and have some left over, put any remainder into a plastic or glass container with a paper towel one corner slightly loose or in a plastic bag with a paper towel and leave a slight gap. This allows for moisture to move around without settling in it.
If you get your salad in one of those fancy plastic boxes that are like a clamshell, then open the box when you get it home, pop in a paper towel in the lid and turn it upside down so that the leaves settle onto the paper on the lid. This loosens everything and adds some air around any leaves which might have been going a bit soft at the bottom of the container in the shop because now they're at the top. If you've bought lettuces in head form, then leave them unwashed and in whole heads as long as you can until you need them. This gives them a smaller surface area in contact with the air for longer.
Dense, tight heads like romaine and little gem have less air gaps between leaves and so they'll last longer, about one to two weeks, much more than soft butterhead types which are more like three to five days. Iceberg types will last the longest, up to two to three weeks if you store them well. You can leave head lettuces in their packs closed or with a paper towel once you've opened them. If you buy a pack of two firm headed lettuces and want to make one of them last a bit longer so you can stagger them out,you can actually wrap one of them loosely in kitchen foil because that allows more moisture exchange than plastic wrap whilst still covering it and it will add a few extra days so you can sometimes get two weeks out of a firm head of lettuce in foil.
Keep an eye on your fridge temperature and make sure you don't put salad leaves and this applies to spinach leaves as well in the coldest parts of the fridge. If they get too cold, the high water content will start to freeze up and that will burst the cell walls as it defrosts and they'll go wet and slimy. Know your own fridge and where your colder spots are. They tend to be near the bottom and the back and side walls, the salad drawer is okay in some fridges, not in others, so figure your own fridge out.
Also, salad reacts quickly to ethylene, which is a gas that some plants give out that make other plants start to ripen up. So don't store them next to bananas, apples, pears, tomatoes and avocados because they give off a lot of ethylene. If you do use some of a lettuce, but not all, try to tear the leaves off rather than cutting them because that creates a smaller wound for bacteria and mold to get in. And if you do cut it up, try to use a plastic knife if you have one because metal causes more browning on the edges.
If you have a whole lettuce that's gone a bit droopy, you can pop the stem end into a glass of water and it will take up a bit of moisture. Or for loose leaves, you can pop them into a bowl of very cold water for 15 to 20 minutes and that will often perk them up a bit before use.
Okay, so that's storing them.
Now, lettuces and salads is one of the foods where you might think there's no point having a freezer section in this roundup, but we still have a regular monthly chat with Kate Hall from the full freezer. So let's see what she says.
Joanne (07:33)
So we've got Kate here who's our freezer geek food of the month in May is lettuce. So obviously there's a lot of salads about, there's a lot of soft leafy greens around. So if people are growing these or buying them in bulk from the supermarket because they're on sale, how do you go about freezing these? Can you even freeze these sort of lighter, juicier vegetables?
Kate (07:53)
So that is a really good question and the answer is sort because particularly lettuce, because it is very high in water content, it is one of the foods that people will usually say to you, nope, can't freeze it. It's not an option. You can't do it. if you were wanting to use it for a salad, then yes, absolutely. They're 100 % correct. It's not going to work. But if you wanted to perhaps, put it to use in other ways, so for example, one of the suggestions that I've had, and I'll confess, I haven't tried it myself because I don't really have smoothies, but if you gave it a really good wash, chop it up into sort of slices or into small wedges, freeze it and then bag it up. You can then just grab a small wedge out and pop it into whatever smoothie you're making. It's not going to massively impact the flavor. You know, it's obviously quite a mild flavor depending on what it is. And you can get that extra benefit of those nutrients.
Joanne (08:52)
And it's not going to waste.
Kate (09:01)
And it's not going to waste. it's one of those foods that it's worth giving it a go. If you know it's going to go in the bin anyway, might as well give it a go.
The other option, which is a little bit more labor intensive is when it comes to any salad leaves and particularly if you've got those bags of mixed salad leaves, one of the things you can do is whiz up a again, I can't take credit for this. I'll have to see if I can find the lady that I saw it from on Instagram. But you use up those salad leaves, whiz up with whatever, you know, whatever nuts you've got, get some garlic in there, like whiz up a really nice pesto, and then you can freeze that pesto in ice cube trays and use it from the freezer. So that is a really effective way. I would say as well is when it comes to the spinach leaves, yes, you can freeze them. The joy, of course, with spinach, again, can't use it for a salad, but
Obviously it's much more traditional to be using spinach in cooking and potentially, you know, wilting it and everything. So you can literally just give the leaves a really good wash, make sure they're nicely dried off either pop them on a tray to open freeze. Or if you know you are literally just going to grab a handful and chuck it into a curry or something, you actually just shove them straight into a bag because what you can do, once it's frozen, squeeze the bag. You end up with lots of shards of spinach, which obviously, you know, if you were using it in a salad, it'd be horrible. But if it's just going to go in a curry, then it doesn't really matter. So you'd be able to just tip those shards into whatever you're cooking. You get your nutrition, your flavour of spinach in there. It takes up less space in the freezer if you are happy to use it that way. And it can also be used for things like smoothies. You know, you can also chuck it in there. So spinach works really well. I really love having a bag of spinach. The lettuce, as I say, is a little bit more of an experiment and it works for some people. Some people may not be keen, but if it's going to go in the bin, then absolutely it's worth a go.
Joanne Roach (11:00)
Okay, so that's freezing. And for the listeners who are into dehydrating foods, you can dehydrate pretty much all greens and sprinkle them into things to add bulk and vitamins. And you can also make green powder from them to add to smoothies and soups and all sorts of other things. I'll link in the show notes to a video about that.
Okay so we've stored our lettuce and salad leaves but now we've got some to use up. What can you make to use up extra? We always start with soup in these episodes and it might surprise you but there are lots of great recipes for soup involving salad leaves. You can either make an entirely green blended soup using a mix of leaves and adding in things like cooked potato to thicken it or some dairy for creaminess or mix it with herbs and add things like peas or beans for summery green soups or can just add salad leaves into other soups to add some greens in. Think about the soups you might add spinach or kale to. Minestrone, chickpea soup, chicken noodle soup, curried soups, they can all use wilted down salad leaves instead, especially the softer types like the mixed bags, rocket, watercress, those sorts of things. You can also add whole leaves or wedges of the firmer types into Asian soups where they would normally have pak choi. It's not exactly the same, but it provides a similar mix of squeaky stalk and soft leaves into the texture mix. I'll link to some ideas.
Obviously you can use salad leaves in salad or in sandwiches, but this episode is all about leftovers or excess. And I'm assuming that you'll have used some in salads or sandwiches because that's why you bought them.
Don't forget though that salads come in all shapes and sizes and don't just have to be loose leaves with veggies and dressing. You can also grill or pan fry wedges of firm lettuce and drizzle dressing onto them. They also make a nice side dish this way. I'll link to an example of that. You can also cook them in things like stir fries where they provide some greens and texture. Just put them in towards the end so they only have a little time to wilt through and not burn.
You can sweat them down in a pan and add them to other things in lieu of a spinachy layer. So for example, you could wilt them down and add them into an omelette, a quesadilla or a frittata as the green element, or into mini pancakes with some cheese or nutritional yeast and some corn or peas. Or they could substitute for spinach in green pies like quiches or filo pies with firm cheeses and curds and greens.
You can also add them into hot saucy meals, just like we suggested with the soups. You can put wilted leaves into curries, casseroles and pasta sauces to provide some greens and they work great in risottos too. And then finally, you can use them blended. This might mean in smoothies to give some green elements
or into a soup or stew but blended first just to provide some greens but without texture can as Kate suggested make pesto with them using whatever combo you like, I'll link to a couple of ideas and you can actually use them to make dressings to put onto salads which seems a bit weirdly cannibalistic somehow but dressings like Green Goddess use greens as well as herbs alongside the oil and acid elements so there's no harm in using blended greens in those too. So you can have salad poured onto your salad.
Okay, so that's my roundup on storing and using up lettuce and salad leaves. I'll pop some links to Kate's videos on freezing them in the show notes, along with quite a few recipes for the suggestions. I'll see you next time for another episode, and in the meantime, happy eating!
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