Purple Cos Lettuce

Purple Cos Lettuce (also called Romaine lettuce)

In this picture is my very own garden grown cos lettuce.  It’s a purple one that I haven’t tried before.

What’s so good about Cos lettuce, besides I think its the nicest tasting lettuce…

It is around 95% water, but does have more nutrients than the boring old iceberg lettuce (if you are in my age group or older, this was the only lettuce available in Australian when I was growing up).  Cos has higher levels of betacarotene, vitamin C and folate than iceberg.

It also contains good levels of magnesium, potassium, calcium and phosphorus.  This particular one being purple in colour has some different phytonutrients to the green one.

You always hear of “eat more leafy greens”.  This is a perfect way to get more leafy greens in as it goes well in salads, on burgers or wraps and anywhere else you might want to add a bit of greenery to your meal.  It is great to use instead of bread/wraps.  Wrap up food in your cos lettuce or make “san choy bow” if you want a change or can’t have bread/wraps.  You can even grill it as large segments, but note that it will lose vitamin C content when heated.

In general the lettuce family can help reduce swelling as it’s a good diuretic.  It can help increase mother’s milk too! Unlike most other foods, it actually combines quite well with fruit at the same meal.

Like everything you can have too much of a good thing.  Too much lettuce can actually cause dizziness.  So while it’s great to have it as often as possible, just don’t go eating truckloads of it (or anything for that matter).  It’s all about “balancing nutrition”!

  23/12/2021     Food of the Week     0 Comment(s)