Salad and British people….

[CurlewKate]

Do British people generally only eat salad in a heatwave? Asking because I went shopping yesterday and found empty shelves. I feel I should get special access to lettuce because I eat it and serve it all year round. All you fair weather Romaine lovers-reveal yourselves!

I am an all seasons lunchtime salad eater

But in summer I up it to dinner too

So I am party guilty of the lettuce rush, I guess

Growing your own is actually not as easy as it sounds. My relatives started growing their own veg in a glasshouse and I’ve sampled some recently - bitter cucumbers and lettuce. I think you need to really know your stuff to successfully do it and it have the right flavour

Italian?

I know calories aren’t everything and nutrients matter etc , but I was in a restaurant last month that had a menu which displayed calories for each dish and most of the salads were either the same or more calorific than the pizza or pasta. We all just ended up ordering the pizza or pasta.

Yeah, I once saw someone take the coleslaw spoon out of the salad bar at our local Asda and have a taste before putting the spoon back in. Thankfully they no longer have a salad bar.

Once saw a man in Sephora stick a make up brush up his nose then put it back on the self.. now I never try make up colours in shops not even on the back of a hand.

I eat salad pretty much daily, sometimes twice daily! My mum always made lots of salads so I guess it's just stayed with me as my normal diet. It annoys me too when the sun comes out and the shelves are bare but I grow lots of leaves in patio pots too.

I suspected as much!

Sounds like too much feed. My cucumbers are lovely. Weird shapes but a delicious flavour very different to commercial ones.

Awful and it sounds low key misogynistic/creepy given that vast majority of Sephora customers are women. And he doesn’t sound like a make up enthusiast so what was he even doing there.

When I go to MAC they always clean their makeup brushes in front of me I think before they apply makeup.

I have been known to rustle up a Caesar salad in the middle of winter. If I'm eating out and I order steak, I'll always have a side salad instead of cooked veg. I love salad!

My mother was Italian and I was brought up like this too. Hence my salad obsession!

For clarity, I’m using “lettuce”as a catch-all to include all salad ingredients. I do not count the contents of Morrison’s salad bar as salad. Just because noodles, pasta, potatoes or rice are cold, that does not make them a salad!

Possibly Italian or French, or any number of other countries tbf.

I love the Mediterranean approach to food, having lived there; but it's a totally different lifestyle and the weather/climate has a lot to do with that. Brits eat more salad in the summer because let's face it, you need more than a salad to feel satisfied most of the year! And warm salads aren't really that much of a thing here.

My DH is South African.

Ahhh that makes sense too, then! Having also lived in South Africa, I get where he's coming from.

God I miss sunshine!!

Salad year round for me, hot or cold salads, with fruit in or seasonal veg.. love it all.

Tumblingdowntherabbithole I love you! Everyone in my family can't understand why I dislike the green stuff so much.All lettuce tastes grim to me ,but especially Iceberg .Just no taste, and a grim pseudo crunchy texture. I like coleslaw,beetroot ,tomatoes and corn ,sort of like a Harvester salad at home !

I have a bowl of freshly chopped up salad in the fridge most days. Lettuce, cucumber ,carrot, onions etc
It was a standing joke when the kids were young.. here's mum. Do you want lettuce with your casserole, kids? 😂

Yes there’s a lot of shallow thinking around food sometimes.

I eat salad every day. I especially like lettuce in my lunchtime sandwiches.

We eat seasonally so lots of salad in spring & summer and then heartier root veg in the autumn and winter. We grow our own veg and buy as much British grown as possible. Lettuce tastes awful in winter anyway, bitter as it has been cold-stored and grown 1000+ miles away. There is typically enough near us but there is usually a weekend BBQ rush so I know what you mean when it runs out!

This heatwave:

As do I, but how much do you actually get in it? It’s hard to cram meaningful amounts of lettuce into a sandwich or roll.

I think that’s one of the things to be careful of with salad - especially lettuce. It can look “ bulky” but crunches down to nothing much nutrition-wise - a bit like nature’s version of candy floss. So I eat it but I think you can’t neglect a plate of “more substantial” veg along the way.

I'm an all-year rounder so in your tribe!

I hardly eat any fruit so my diet is full-on vegetables and salad every day

We eat caesar salad all year, and always have a side salad with pasta, with fennel and radiccio in winter more than green salad leaves. Grow our own salad leaves (the cut and come again variety), radishes, tomatoes and courgettes in summer.

As per pp, I wish supermarkets did salad boxes without rice or pasta.