Bolted Lettuce Leaves
With this hot weather, my lettuce bolted earlier than expected. Once it bolts or goes to seed, the lettuce turns bitter. Meh! But despite the seeds, the lettuce leaves look so inviting. This whole bolting concept just seems a waste of good lettuce.
So, I turned to my wonderful Facebook Fan Page for help. Believe me. I am so blessed since whenever I am in a pinch, I can simply put my question on the page, and in minutes, my phone starts beeping like crazy with all the incoming emails. So, what did my peeps have to say?
Note, I am sure these ideas are great for wilted lettuce as well. (You know the kind that looks like it is on its last legs in the refrigerator?)
- Use it in a Smoothie thanks to My BBVF (best vegan friend forever) Stephanie of Good Girl Gone Green. I tried my usual smoothie with the lettuce. And, whala, no bitter taste!
- Make a wilted greens salad thanks to @ Debbie. See here for a recipe for vegan wilted greens.
- Feed the lettuce to your chickens thanks to @Nancy of Surviving and Thriving on Pennies and @Kim.
- Add tomatoes, cucumbers, and sweet french dressing says @Joy. See here for a sweet french dressing.
- Add it to your bag of vegetable cuttings for vegetable stock or chicken stock. (See here for my frugal chicken or vegetable stock recipe.)
- Use like you would use Swiss Chard thank to @Beth.
- Leave the seeds for the goldfinches thanks to @Featherfields The Bird and Garden Store.
- Hope for fall lettuce seedlings. (says @G-d. Didn’t you know he was on Facebook? Where have you been? You should see some of his pictures.)
- And there is always the compost.
By the way, my Swiss chard bolted too. Yep, another steroid Swiss chard year.
Join the Conversation
- What do you do with bolted lettuce?
- Any great bolted lettuce recipes?
- How do you keep your lettuce from bolting?
karen says
Just discovering this post today, and thrilled! While I’ve been pretty good about harvesting my lettuce when it’s ready, I had a week where I was too busy and some of it got out of hand.
I love the idea of using it like I would chard. I’m going to have to give that a try. I