Stir-fry, soup, smoothies and even cake: 17 delicious ways with lettuce – that aren’t salad

Forget vinaigrette: if you really want to make the most of these leaves, apply some heat, herbs or double cream and bacon When wild lettuce plants were first domesticated in the Caucasus 6,000 years ago, the crop was the seed, which could be pressed into oil. As cultivated plants migrated west through Egypt into Europe, the Greeks and Romans transformed them into salad leaves. There are now hundreds of commercially grown varieties of lettuce, available all year round. But if you do grow them,...

By Tim Dowling