Know Your Salads | British Leafy Salads Association

Do You Know Your Salads?

Leafy salads are a delicious way to boost your 5 a day intake – and being so adaptable and wide ranging are suitable for main meals, side dishes, perfect for entertaining and great for everyday family meals.

A sophisticated supply chain ensures that salad products reach consumers’ trolleys in tip top condition and are still bursting with nutrients. You can ring the changes whatever the season so salads should be a regular part of everyone’s diet – all year round.

You may not have considered the humble lettuce leaf’s journey to your plate, but you can be assured that it has had the utmost care and attention lavished upon it at every step of the way.

Image credit: Agrial Fresh Produce

Salads are classed in three categories, wholehead, baby leaf and specialty. Wholehead means those lettuces where a full head is produced – Iceberg, Gem, Romaine/Cos, Round and Butterhead are all wholehead lettuces.

Wholehead is also used as a term in shops and wholesalers. It refers to the product being sold as a whole head of lettuce. The term wholehead here is in contrast to prepared salad. In prepared salad leaves from any time of lettuce or salad are used for bagged salads, salad bowls, prepared meals, sandwiches and wraps.
Babyleaf salad leaves are products where the plant produces individual leaves or collections of leaves. Babyleaf includes Spinach, Rocket, Chard, Watercress, Baby beetroot, Pea Shoots Lambs lettuce.
Speciality salad leaves are those that either need specialist growing conditions or those which are grown in small volumes to be used for specific purposes. Speciality lettuces include Oak Leaf, Batavia, Lollo Rosso, Lollo Verde, Frisee Endive, Raddichio. Certain varieties of wholehead lettuce may also be classed as speciality lettuce when they are used for food service and food-to-go. Varieties of Butterhead lettuce, for example, are grown specifically for use by certain fast food and food-to-go outlets because the leaf is more robust.

The wholehead salads grown in the UK can be broken down into 5 groups/types - Iceberg, Gem, Romaine/Cos, Butterhead and speciality lettuces such as Oak Leaf.

Loose leaf or baby leaf salads include rocket, spinach, lambs lettuce and watercress.

In each variety or type there are many different cultivars. Cultivars are created by selective breeding to accommodate differences in the growing needs of a particular region, soil type, growing season or resistance to bolting [making seeds instead of leaves]. Cultivars can be developed so that they have better tolerance to larger temperature ranges, so they can be sown earlier or harvested later.

Leafy salads have a wonderful variety of characteristics – from the crisp refreshing leaves of iceberg, the peppery punch of rocket or watercress leaves to the slightly bitter flavour of radicchio that goes so well with sharp cheeses or balsamic vinegar dressings.

Leaf Guide

The beauty of salads is that whether you’re looking for sweet, soft, subtle, or bitter flavours, there are many different tastes and textures which make a tasty meal on their own, or which can provide a wonderful base for a range of interesting ingredients.

But if you don’t know your red chard from your romaine, then this guide is here to help you. There are hundreds of different cultivars within each variety, but this list will help you identify the main types.

COS and Romaine (Red/Green)

A long, oval head of crisp dark leaves with crunch ribs. Romaine is rich in potassium and contains carotenoids. The traditional base for Caesar salad. Cos may have come from the Greek Island of the same name, Kos. It is also possible that the name comes from the Arabic word for lettuce Khus.

Iceberg

The pale, round, tightly packed highly versatile lettuce with crisp refreshing leaves. British Iceberg lettuce is available from May through to October. It stays fresh longer than any other type of lettuce, when kept at a constant cool temperature.

Round Lettuce

The traditional British lettuce with and open head and soft outer leaves. The round lettuce tends to be a hardier variety that can be grown most of the year in the UK as long as it is under glass or indoors in the winter.

Little gem Lettuce

A smaller, compact derivative of cos lettuce. The rich, outer leaves and delicate inner leaves are crisp, with a slightly sweet flavour. Great for kids and nature’s spoon for dips.

Radicchio

A striking wine red and white leaf chicory widely used in Italian cooking. It has firm texture and crunch similar to a cabbage and a bitter flavour. It can also be cooked in a wide variety of dishes and holds its shape.

When is the main season for growing salads?

The UK season for wholehead lettuce begins around the middle of May and finishes at the end of October. For salads in general, if the spring has been warm, the first seedlings will be planted around mid March and the first harvest will take place around April. The new season’s leaves are packed and ready on supermarket shelves within as little as 24 hours. Outside of the season our members produce crops on their own farms in Europe.
Is all lettuce grown outdoors?

Most of the lettuce grown in the UK is grown outdoors, however, about 20% is grown in glasshouses. It is usually butterhead lettuce and some speciality leaves which are grown in this way, however, Iceberg is never grown under glass and it is unusual for Cos/Romaine to be grown in this way.
What is the difference between glasshouse and field growing? Is one more superior to the other?

Some varieties are more suited to indoor growing i.e. round lettuce, which may damage outdoors. Generally, indoor crops will be crops which require temperature control such as tomatoes or peppers. The majority of lettuce is grown outdoors, due to the vast areas required for production and the extra costs involved in glasshouse production.
How long do salad leaves take to grow?

It depends on the season, as the warmer it is the faster the plants grow. In the early and late part of the season leaves take on average 2½ months to grow while in mid-summer, at the height of the season, the growing time is between 6 and 8 weeks. For loose leaf varieties, the growing time can then be anything from 28 to 70 days, depending on the weather. The warmer it is the faster the plants grow.
What is the salad industry doing about the use of pesticides?

Pesticide use has been substantially reduced on salad farms over the years and we are now using much more environmentally friendly products. The salad industry’s own controls are far more stringent than those laid down by legislation. Today many pesticides are target-specific (designed to tackle a specific problem or insect) with little or no environmental impact. Salad growers operate ‘Integrated Crop Management’ techniques in which a variety of control measures are used and sprays only applied where necessary in response to an identified problem. Crops are intensively monitored for signs of pests and disease before any decision is taken to spray. Crop traps (much like fly traps) are used to see how many pests are actually around. Many farms also use sophisticated weather stations to monitor conditions likely to produce high levels of disease. With this early warning system, appropriate action can be taken to avoid loss or damage to the crop, such as the protection of the salads with vast carpets of mesh anti thrip nets laid on to wire hoops across the field (a thrip is one of the tiniest known pests). Other methods used include the planting of specific crops to attract predators which will eat the pests, the use of natural products to repel insects and the use of vacuum units to remove insects ahead of harvest. With baby salad leaves, the growing cycle is so short, sometimes just 24 days, that many crops are never sprayed at all. Farmers exercise strict crop rotations and are also continually testing different varieties of salad leaves for their disease resistance in order to minimise the use of pesticides.

Specialty & Baby Leaf (Loose Leaf)

Lollo Rosso lettuce

A non hearting loose leaf lettuce with fringed crinkled leaves deep red at the ends and a tender, crisp texture. The red plant pigment contains a flavonoid called Quercetin which is an antioxidant.

Oak Leaf lettuce (Red/Green)

A loose leaf lettuce with attractive serrated, deep green leaves tinged with red at the edges.

Red Chard

Red Chard is a member of the Swiss Chard family and is also available with many other stem colours. The name chard actually refers to the broad middle stalks and the side ribs rather than the leafy part of the plant. Ideal for brightening up salads, red chard has a distinct flavour and, when young, can be treated like spinach and eaten raw or cooked.

Frisee Endive

Escarole

A broad leaved kind of frisee, this has crunchy, mild green outer leaves and a pale heart. The flavour is slightly bitter, but less so than frisee. It is good mixed with milder salad leaves.This is a spiky firm textured leaf, which is mildly bitter with a slight grainy texture. Also known as curly endive, frisee is a form of chicory, and belongs to the Compositae or daisy family. Traditionally this is combined with poached eggs and bacon in the classic French bistro salad and, mixed with other leaves, provides a great and robust bed for a variety of hot ingredients.

Gourmet Medley

If you want a mixed salad all in one lettuce, then Gourmet Medley’s the one for you. Lollo Rosso (slightly nutty), Lollo Biondi (mild and tender) and Red Oak Leaf (mild and sweet) are grown tightly together in one root ball and then cut and sold as a three headed lettuce.

Batavia

Batavia lettuce is a non-hearty lettuce with frilly leaves. Its crunchy nutty flavoured leaves grow upright to form a loose leaf head. Batavias have an excellent shelf life, maintaining their crispness from the time they're harvested until the time they reach the dinner table.

Lollo Verde

The green cousin of Lollo Rosso this has a delicate texture, a mild flavour and can be found in mixed bags of salad.

Bulls blood (Ruby Red Chard)

A young tender leaf with a bright red stalk and deep red leaf. A mild delicate beetroot flavour.

Mizuna

Light green serrated leaves with a soft texture and mild mustard flavour.

Spinach

Young spinach leaves are tender and sweet and are delicious raw or cooked. Eating raw spinach, such as in a salad, minimises the loss of nutrients, which occurs during cooking. Thought to originate from the Mediterranean, spinach is a member of the goosefoot family, which also includes Swiss chard, table beet and leaf beet.

Rocket

Thought to originate from southern Europe, rocket is very versatile served in salads, wilted in pasta or on top of a pizza. The thin spiky leaf has a strong peppery flavour and has long had a role in Italian cookery.

Watercress

A member of the Cruciferae family, watercress has a distinctive ‘raw’ flavour, both peppery and slightly pungent. Unlike other salad leaves, Watercress is grown in gravel beds, washed by flowing mineral rich spring water.

Tatsoi

A true brassica, tatsoi is a form of Chinese flat cabbage. Lustrous dark green leaves have a delicate mustard flavour with a crunchy, juicy stalk. In the same family as Pak Choi, this Asian green is delicious sautéed with a little sesame oil or slightly wilted in stir fries.