One of the green vegetables most frequently consumed worldwide is lettuce and for a good reason.
Different types of lettuce exist, from the traditional iceberg to the more exotic radicchio.
Lettuce contains many critical vitamins and minerals in addition to being low in calories and high in fiber.
Most likely, when you hear the word “lettuce,” you picture iceberg or romaine lettuce.
There is so much more to the lovely lettuce world than just those delicious and useful varieties.
Usually served raw, seasoned, and combined with other salad ingredients, these vegetables are included in the broader category of salad greens.
But different types of lettuce may contribute a lot of texture and taste to whatever you’re preparing, whether raw or cooked.
If you intend to cook them, do so quickly by sautéing or wilting; otherwise, the fragile greens will lose their distinctive flavor.
Also, keep in mind to fully wash them before consuming them raw.
This article will introduce you to some of the most well-liked types of lettuce, whether you’re a salad fanatic, a health-conscious eater, or simply trying to vary your normal greens.
1. Arugula Lettuce
The dark green leaves of arugula, sometimes known as rocket, have a spicy flavor.
The leaves can all be the same dark green hue, whether they are long and spiky or shorter and more rounded.
The best flavorful arugula is wild-harvested; look for it at farmer’s markets and regional food cooperatives.
Arugula grown is generally accessible and has a flavor that varies substantially.
Larger leaves often have a stronger flavor than smaller ones, but test the batch before using if pungency concerns.
Arugula can be used alone to stand up to tart sauces like lemon garlic vinaigrette and potent flavors like blue cheese, or it can be combined with other lettuces to add accentuation.
Hearty recipes like chicken with bread, salad, and arugula benefit greatly from the addition of arugula.
2. Butterhead Lettuce
Due to its buttery flavor, butter lettuce—also known as butterhead lettuce or Bibb lettuce—got its name. Since it is typically red or green, it can resemble cabbage.
Iceberg and butter lettuce would be at the two extremes of a scale, with crunchy and watery lettuce at one end and leafy and soft lettuce at the other.
Butterhead lettuce is soft, leafy, and tasty in many ways, unlike Iceberg lettuce’s crunchy and watery texture.
Butter lettuce has a buttery, sweet flavor. It is a fantastic option for sandwiches, salads, wraps, and tacos.
And butter lettuce has a smooth, butter-like texture, as its name suggests.
The more expensive of the two, Bibb, is frequently offered in a plastic bag to safeguard the fragile leaves.
Butter lettuce’s large, flexible leaves can also be used as a wrap, although its delicate leaves work best in delicate salads.
3. Iceberg Lettuce
Next on our list of different types of lettuce is Iceberg Lettuce. One of the most popular lettuce varieties is an iceberg, which you’re undoubtedly already familiar with.
Fresh iceberg lettuce, which is both cooling and watery, is frequently used in wedge salads.
It can also be found shredded and added to sandwiches or tacos. The medium-sized heads of iceberg lettuce have tightly packed, light to medium green-colored leaves.
4. Batavia Lettuce
Compared to many salad greens, Batavia lettuce is more tolerant of hot climates.
It maintains its crispness and is less likely to bolt (flower) and turn bitter than other lettuces, making it a favorite among summer gardeners who wish to maintain fresh lettuce throughout the growing season.
The Batavia lettuce has green or red-tinted leaves, like many lettuce kinds.
Choose the dish that will look the prettiest on your table because there is no taste difference between the two.
Add some honey mustard vinaigrette or a basic balsamic dressing over the top.
5. Coral Lettuce
Coral Lettuce is one of the different types of lettuce. A looseleaf type recognized for its mild flavor, Coral can come in green, red, or speckled forms.
Coral is a fantastic salad option if you prefer salads with lots of dressing because it has tight curls that tend to hold dressing.
Coral lettuce’s tightly curled leaves are good at snatching dressing. The crisp but tender kind also works well as lettuce for burgers and sandwiches.
6. Leaf Lettuce
Leaf lettuce, or cutting or bunching, is the most common kind of lettuce you will find at a supermarket.
This lettuce comes in multiple varieties, such as oak, green, and red.
This lettuce forms large leaves but no head, making it easier to break apart and use on salads or sandwiches.
The leaves are juicy and sweet. Because they grow on a single stem rather than a head, they have a shorter shelf life than other lettuce varieties (and are more likely to wilt; therefore, they use light dressings).
For salad green combinations, its moderate flavor and texture make it ideal.
7. Cress Lettuce
Next on the different types of lettuce is Cress lettuce. Cress is one of the oldest leafy greens used by humans and is a mustard and cabbage family member, giving its small, delicate leaves a notably spicy, peppery, and pungent flavor.
While you should always wash any vegetable before eating it, you should take extra care with cress because it frequently comes from the store covered in sand and grows in wet or sandy soil.
These greens make a tasty addition to salads, but they can also serve as the foundation, like in this watercress and citrus salad.
Cress comes in four primary kinds;
- Water Cress: As its name suggests, watercress is produced in water and has the strongest flavor of all types.
- Garden cress: This kind, cultivated in soil, has an intense flavor that some people compare to horseradish.
- Upland Cress: Is distinguished by its more delicate flavor and thinner stem. This type frequently arrives in plastic bags with the cress roots still attached.
- Korean Watercress: This kind of cress is noticeably crinkly and harsh.
8. Belgian Endive
These small, tightly packed heads are crunchy and flavorful. Endive gives a satisfying crunch to any salad, whether served on its own or combined with other greens.
It is a common ingredient in Endive’s slow and careful braising to the most exquisite caramelized brown color.
Knowing your audience or using them sparingly with other salad greens are the best options because they can have a harsh edge.
Belgian Endive is a terrific choice in the middle of winter when you’re seeking that gratifying fresh-leaf crunch because most of it is now grown indoors (it used to be buried in sand to keep the leaves white).
9. Frisee
These crinkled, green, and yellow-tinged leaves offer a lot of texture and have a mildly bitter flavor. They also have a crisp stem.
The producer shielded them from light while growing, making them pale green, white, and yellow.
Escarole and Frisée have a close relationship. The ruffled texture of frisée is best consumed raw or barely warmed.
10. Romaine
Number ten on our list of the different types of lettuce is Romaine. Romaine lettuce is the second most popular variety in the United States.
Due to its excellent crunch and subtle bitterness, it is frequently used in Caesar salads.
Although it has much more flavor than iceberg lettuce, it still has a mild flavor. It’s a fantastic base for storing flavors, so to reiterate.
Romain is a great bread substitute if you follow a low-carb diet. Use it as a burger bun, taco shell, or wrap. Lastly, it grills and sautés nicely. Therefore, you can even grill it.
11. Looseleaf Lettuce
Despite the crisp stem, they are highly flexible and have a moderate flavor.
Their ruffled, irregular surfaces give salads additional layers of complexity.
You can put loose-leaf lettuce anywhere. The enormous leaves should be torn into bite-sized pieces for a salad because of their size.
The broad, soft leaves and strong ribs make for outstanding lettuce wraps. They’re also fantastically puréed into soup.
12. Escarole
Next on the different types of lettuce is Escarole. Escarole is a type of chicory called Batavian Endive or Broad-leaved Endive.
It is used in Italian cooking and is known for its big, bitter, and crisp leaves.
Although you may expect it to be a more pricey green than most lettuce varieties, the plant’s inner leaves tend to be less bitter and soft, making them a perfect salad component. Cooking the outer leaves is recommended.
13. Mache Lettuce
Mache lettuce is one of the different types of lettuce. Although it resembles watercress in appearance and texture, mache lettuce has much milder flavors. The nutty flavor is delicious, both fresh and cooked.
Fortunately, yo in many ways as spinach. It tastes delicious when sautéed in butter. Mache isn’t bulky, so I suggest mixing it with other lettuce to build a salad.
14. Little Gem Lettuce
This lettuce resembles baby romaine lettuce or Baby Gem or Sucrine. Its tiny, sweet, and crunchy leaves make salads, sandwiches, and burgers a wonderful addition.
Because of their small size, consider using them in this Grilled Romaine Salad as a hors d’oeuvre.
Little Gem lettuce has a slight crunch but is otherwise mushy—the delicate flavor pairs beautifully with lemony sauces and mild vinaigrettes (ginger vinaigrette is excellent).
15. Mignonette
Next on our list of different types of lettuce is Mignonette. Butterhead lettuce called “mignonette,” is a delectable cultivar in a few vibrant colors.
They’re both a little bit sweet and a little bit tart, like the passion fruit of the lettuce world. But let’s say the fruit is far more passionate than the lettuce.
Thanks to its moderate (though tangy) flavor, it pairs well with various other ingredients. Additionally, as it is a butterhead lettuce, it complements a variety of foods.
16. Mesclun Lettuce
Mesclun, which means “mixed” in Provencal, comprises various young, wild greens.
Most mesclun currently on the market is farmed, which means it is grown in beds of mixed lettuce seeds and picked when the leaves are 3 to 6 inches.
Look for salad mixes that include young, sweet lettuce leaves from different types of soft lettuces, herbs, curly Endive for texture, and peppery watercress or arugula for a bite.
Some farms and markets sell special “spicy” blends with extra arugula, watercress, mizuna, and mustard leaves.
Mesclun is dressed with the typical French vinaigrette, but it’s a versatile mixture that works with various dressings.
17. Oak Leaf Lettuce
Next on the different types of lettuce is oak leaf lettuce. This type of butter lettuce usually comes in green or red.
It is popular because it is easy to grow at home, and you can do it in a pot on a balcony.
Because this variety grows loosely, you may just cut as many leaves as you need when you need them rather than having to remove the entire head.
The leaves are fairly fragrant and delicate. Like other types of butter lettuce, this one makes a terrific raw addition to any salad or sandwich topping.
18. Radicchio
Red chicory, red leaf chicory, and red Italian chicory are further names for radicchio. Call it red chicory, or pronounce the word “ruh-dee-key-o.”
It is a dark purple or scarlet vegetable that is mistakenly called lettuce when, in fact, it is chicory or Endive.
The flavor is distinctive from most lettuces and is frequently bitter.
Many Italian and Mediterranean cuisine contain it. You can consume it in a salad or cooked into spaghetti or soup.
Look for heads with colorful, “firm”-feeling leaves at the grocery store. Avoid wilted or squishy heads for the greatest flavor and results while cooking!
Radicchio adds a great flavor to salads. You can use it as a leafy foundation or combine it with other ingredients more sparingly.
The leaves are delicious when grilled or sautéed and served as a separate meal with parmesan cheese.
19. Speckled Lettuce
It is sometimes referred to as trout lettuce and is said to have originated in Austria or Germany under the name Forellenschluss.
Although it is not a type of butter lettuce, this delectable romaine variation grows to a medium size and is distinguished by its buttery leaves.
To highlight the leaves’ aesthetically pleasing appearance, we advise chopping them into smaller pieces and incorporating them into salads.
20. Stem Lettuce
Last on our list of the different types of lettuce is Stem Lettuce.
Asparagus lettuce, Chinese lettuce, celery lettuce, and stalk lettuce are additional names for stem lettuce.
Because the stalk is what is grown rather than the leaves, it is known as stem lettuce.
Although the stems can be utilized like cooked asparagus and are frequently used to stir-fries, the leaves are safe to eat.
Lettuce is an extremely versatile vegetable consumed raw in salads or cooked in various dishes and preparations.
This article discussed 20 different types of lettuce, from mesclun to stem lettuce, and their uses.
No matter what dish you’re making, there’s a type of lettuce perfect for it!
- Some images from our partner Deposit Photos
