Super summer lunch recipe + how to grow your own in 3 simple steps

Summer is up and running now, and there’s nothing better than having fresh salad leaves to add to your meal. You’ll have no excuses for running out if you grow your own and the flavours are far superior from anything you’ll buy from the supermarket.

The most common crop is lettuce but there are a host of other salad leaves: chicory, endive, sorrel, spinach, mizuna, mibuna, rocket and mustard. They’re called cut-and-come-again. Simply keep cutting immature leaves and more re-grow!

HERE'S HOW TO GROW YOUR OWN SALAD

1. Grow salad leaves in full sun, making sure the soil is well-drained.
   They are particularly well suited to growing in containers or growbags. Ensure whatever you use has drainage holes at the bottom to prevent the soil getting flooded. You can also sow salad leaves in the garden straight into the beds.

2. Sow outdoors from mid-spring to late summer, putting the different types of salad seed in rows. Sow thinly at 1cm (½in) deep. (You could also sprinkle a mixture of seed (most garden centres will sell packets of salad leaf mixes) lightly on the top of soil surface, then cover with about 1cm (½in) of compost.)

3. Start to thin out some seedlings as the seed grows by removing with your thumb and forefinger to give more room for the plants to develop. Don’t let the thinned-out seedlings go to waste – eat them now in salads!

You will usually be able to cut the salad leaves three or four times. This means that the secret to having salad leaves all summer long is to sow several times about a fortnight apart. Once you finish with one crop, you can start on the next.

Even as we head into autumn, it’s worth knowing you can grow salad leaves on a windowsill all year round. Try mixing different leaves in seed trays. Oriental varieties are best for winter use. Grow in September and they’ll last you till March.

You can download this super -simple lunch idea HERE – perfect for the warm weather and the ideal excuse to use your home grown salad leaves!

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Legendary lettuce

Is lettuce just the base of your salad or the crunch in your sandwich? Surprisingly, lettuce varieties contain a wide range of nutrients and including a combination of these in your diet will offer plenty of health benefits.

Each lettuce variety has its own phytonutrients and these are dictated by the colour pigments they contain. Phytonutrients provide us with unique health properties. For example green leaf lettuce contains quercetin; which can have anti-histamine effects and help prevent heart disease. Red leaves contain cyanidins, which are helpful with conditions such as diabetes and high cholesterol. 

Romaine lettuce is particularly rich in nutrients. It is an excellent source of vitamin K and vitamin A (in the form of carotenoids) and is also rich in folate and molybdenum amongst many others.

The vitamin K content is particularly important for maintaining healthy bones, blood clotting and preventing heart disease. Additionally the carotenoids are vital for promoting eye health, the immune system and normal cell growth and development.

So don’t just use lettuce as a garnish; it is delicious roasted, made in to Asian style wraps, puréed in to a smooth soup or braised with peas, onions and lemon juice.

My weekly ‘Nutritional Nugget’ written for Fields to Fork Organics

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