5 Ways To Use Wilted Lettuce

Summer’s here, and that will bring no shortage whatsoever of wilted lettuce sitting in the back of people’s fridges. In fact, that’s the situation in my fridge, right now! I bought a couple of heads of lettuce about a week ago, and lo and behold, they’ve lost all their crispiness. The sun rises, the sun sets, and I really need to get better at stock rotation with my food. 

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Anyway, that’s not exactly what prompted me to sit down and write this article – but I can’t lie, I can see how this one will have a self-serving quality to it. I hope, though, that you’ll also be inspired to avoid throwing out those wilted leaves and use your lettuces for these things instead.

Braised Lettuce

Yes, yes: The sun’s out, it’s hot, and braising anything is probably low-priority. But if your lettuce wilting coincides with a few cooler days, braising it can be a good move. Substitute it for cabbage in braised, cooked dishes, or braise a halved head on its own. It’s worth noting that this works best with hardier lettuce varieties, like romaine, and lettuces that haven’t quite lost all of their crispiness yet (but which you wouldn’t want to use in a salad).

Pea And Lettuce Gratin

Another cooked dish here, but one that feels perfect for a Sunday evening dinner. This recipe, which comes courtesy of The Guardian, repurposes lettuce and combines it with peas, spring onions, garlic, butter, broth, heavy cream, and cheese. It’s also surprisingly quick to come together: You put it under the broiler so it can brown and bubble, instead of baking it for ages. 

Lettuce Smoothie

This one isn’t a recipe in and of itself, more a useful use for lettuce when it’s not quite at its best. Stuffing your wilted lettuce leaves into a smoothie is a great way to get a quick hit of nutrition without sacrificing too much flavor. Lettuce can get a little more bitter when it’s wilted, but it’s still milder than a lot of other salad leaves, and so it will incorporate well with your other smoothie ingredients. Bear in mind that it can release a fair bit of moisture when it’s whizzed up, so account for this by adding slightly less of your standard liquid. 

Wilted Romaine Cream Sauce

This recipe, which comes from SCRAPS, WILT + WEEDS: Turning Wasted Food Into Plenty (via Edible Manhattan), is an awesome way to incorporate wilted lettuce into your salad without using the leaves as you normally would. Shallots, onions, and garlic are sautéed until soft and flavorful before being combined with cream, wilted Romaine, salt, and lemon juice. Once blended, it becomes a gloriously flavorful, rich salad dressing. 

Lettuce Soup

Again, not a bona fide recipe, but a canny use. As in smoothies, wilted lettuce can provide soups with a quick hit of nutrition and a subtle flavor. You can boil the leaves if you wish, as you would with spinach, or you can blend them into most broths or stews.