Easy Romaine Lettuce Soup Recipe - Dairy Free (2024)

FAQs

What to do with lots of romaine? ›

Because contamination can happen anywhere from farm to table, no single type of leafy green is risk-free. But hydroponic lettuces (which are greenhouse-grown) are less likely to be contaminated by bacteria from animal droppings.

Frozen lettuce has its place in the kitchen. You can add it to soup or stock, quiche, casseroles, and stir fries. You can substitute frozen lettuce in any recipe that calls for spinach. Whole frozen lettuce leaves work well as wraps; thaw them in the refrigerator overnight before using.

Nutrition & Fertilizer

Fertilizing your romaine lettuce plants will help them to produce more nutritious leaves. The best way to fertilize romaine lettuce is to use a balanced fertilizer that contains nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

Infections like E. coli and other unsafe bacteria are easily avoided by properly washing your greens. And especially if you're getting your lettuce from a garden or local farm, you'll want to make sure you rinse out any possible dirt (where bacteria often hides) or bugs that you don't want in your salad.

Fresh lettuce can be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months. This tip works best with sturdy-leafed greens, such as romaine and butterhead. Wash and dry the lettuce, separate the leaves from the head, and freeze in airtight bags.

Worst: Iceberg Wedge Salad

Thanks to the blue cheese or ranch dressing and bacon crumbles, it can pack in four times the fat of a T-bone steak. It also falls short in the nutrition department. That's because iceberg lettuce contains fewer vitamins and minerals than most dark leafy greens.

Veggies like mushrooms, baby spinach, bean sprouts, lettuce, and peas can be good for boosting your gut health, specifically. These vegetables are great for your gut because of their fiber or water contents, or because they contain plant compounds called polyphenols.

While spring mix, spinach, and kale are often hailed as the salad bar's nutritional powerhouses, the truth is that romaine is, as far as vitamins and minerals and all that good stuff is concerned, actually very comparable (and in some ways better) than its supposedly-so-much-more-virtuous cousins.

Cut Plants Back to the Ground; Let Them Resprout

The stump will resprout when temperatures cool later in the season and go on to produce a second crop of lettuce in the late summer or fall.

What to do with romaine lettuce before it goes bad? ›

For greens that are on the turn, juices and smoothies are a great way to get past wilting. Blitz up your lettuce leaves in a blender or juicer, adding apple juice, ginger, or turmeric to taste – voila, fancy green juice without the high price tag.

How Long Does Romaine Lettuce Last in the Fridge? A whole head of romaine should keep in the fridge for 10 to 20 days, while the hearts usually last a week to 10 days. Make sure you make the most of both by following these tips for storing romaine in the refrigerator.

Generally, lettuce is safe for most people to eat. It isn't a common allergen. Because it's low in calories, there's not a big problem with eating too much lettuce.

While the headlines make it seem as if all romaine is harboring illness-causing germs, the reality is less attention-grabbing. "Millions of servings of leafy greens are eaten safely every day in the United States," per the CDC.

Popular veggies from a salad bar – romaine and Bibb lettuces, broccoli, spinach, kale or parsley – can slow down cartilage destruction and lessen the amount of bone loss that occurs with age, research says, thanks to their high calcium counts. But remember to go easy on the dressing.

Fresh Romaine Lettuce

After washing, store the greens in plastic bags with paper towels to absorb moisture, and tuck everything into your fridge's crisper drawer. Just know that washing greens makes them go bad faster, so try to eat them within a couple of days.