Chopped lettuce slaw? Yes folks, not only is it a thing…it’s a frugal and delicious side dish that’s easy to make!
My version all started when I walked by my raised garden bed and noticed a varying amount of early veggies and herbs that needed to be picked. My first thought, as I was picking lettuce and radishes was to make a salad. But my tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers weren’t quite ready yet. So I continued to pick spinach, dill, thyme and lastly…onions that had bolted due to the weather changes.
(Bolted means the vegetable item has flowered or gone to seed. In this case, the onion that bolted won’t grow any further and should be picked in scallion form. Which is still perfectly delicious.)
Rinse those veggies and herbs for the lettuce slaw!
After I brought all my garden bounty of veggies and herbs into the house, I was sure to rinse them off. We don’t use pesticides on our veggies, so that wasn’t my worry to wash off…but when you think about all the flies, gnats, slugs and other creepy crawly insects and undesirable flying bugs in your garden that may have crawled or landed on what you’re about to eat…you’ll want to rinse them off too! *grimace*
Using a salad spinner makes life so much easier!
I love my salad spinner! It makes salad making so much easier! It rinses, spins and drains the salad contents and makes them all fluffy! And it’s also kind of fun to use!
If you don’t have a salad spinner…get one! I found this one years ago at a second hand shop and purchased it for only 25 cents!! I’ve used it a hundred times if not more!
Look at how nice, clean and fluffy those leaves are after a trip through the salad spinner!
Time To Make The Chopped Lettuce Slaw Side Dish…
With my trusty Pioneer Woman square knife and a flexible cutting board, I went to the task of chopping the ingredients for a chopped lettuce slaw.
I started by chopping all the assorted lettuces that I picked from my garden. I prefer to chop the lettuces into ribbon shapes for this side dish.
After chopping, place the lettuce(s) in a mixing bowl.
Then I chopped the spinach leaves the same way as the lettuce leaves and some into smaller pieces. Sshhhh, I did this to hide them from my husband…he’s not a fan of spinach.
Add the chopped spinach to the bowl with the chopped lettuce.
Then I chopped the dill and thyme leaves (both removed from their stems) into finely chopped pieces and added them to the bowl with the lettuce and spinach leaves.
Remove the leaves and the root from the radishes. Wash them and finely chop them. They add great color and crunch to the lettuce slaw, along with a little extra bite of flavor.
Then, finely chop the scallions…white and green parts both! They add a variety of color and flavor.
Sprinkle the lettuce mixture with salt, pepper and grated parmesan cheese to taste. Then toss gently. You could honestly eat the mixture like this, or even add it to a sandwich if you would like.
Time To Make A Dressing For The Lettuce Slaw!
The chopped lettuce mixture needs a dressing to make it a slaw. So I decided to make a garlic and parmesan dressing to bring it all together. I honestly don’t have a set recipe but here’s what I did. Just use the amounts to suit your taste.
I added about a 1/4 cup of sour cream into a bowl, then I added a hefty teaspoon of minced garlic, 3 hefty tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese, a few shakes of black pepper and finished it by whisking in a bit of milk-a little at a time until it was of a consistency to properly coat the chopped lettuce mixture.
Gently drizzle the dressing along the inside of the bowl and toss the lettuce mixture until everything is properly coated, but not drenched. It won’t take much dressing.
Note: If your lettuces are bitter, you may want to add a bit of sugar or honey to the dressing to mellow out the bitterness.
For a little extra flavor, you could add blue cheese crumbles or feta cheese crumbles to the dressing as well.
Note: If you don’t want to make your own dressing, you can use a premade slaw dressing or a bottled ranch dressing and then add some grated parmesan cheese to it.
Serve The Lettuce Slaw As a Side Dish…
The lettuce slaw makes a simple and delicious side dish with many summer meals. Be sure to enjoy it right away, because it tends to get a bit soggy and doesn’t keep long.
It is a very frugal and delicious use of items from your garden or leftover salad makings.
Save those veggie and herb scraps!
After you made the lettuce slaw, be sure to save all your vegetable trimmings and herb stems for your next batch of veggie stock.
In conclusion…
Well folks, I hope you get a chance to make chopped lettuce slaw this summer and I sincerely hope you enjoy all the fresh and delicious flavors that it has to offer.
Take care, be safe, virtual hugs…
Chauncey
If you’d like to know more about making a frugal and delicious batch of veggie stock, check out this link from one of my blogs…https://frugalanddelicious.com/homemade-vegetable-stock/
If you’d like to purchase the fabulous Pioneer Woman square knife like the one I used to chop all the ingredients for the lettuce slaw, here’s the link to order one for yourself…
