Iceberg lettuce ideas

[piracer]

So i was trying to figure out a way to use iceberg lettuce in a salad aside from those nasty shreds with misc amounts of other random vegetables. The only salad i know dedicated to iceberg is of course the wedge with a blue cheese dressing and as nice as that is, its boring after a while.

But either wise, what else would you do with iceberg?

[SylviaLovegren]

I like it with the thick "Japanese" dressing, the one that tastes of ginger and sesame and is orangey. Don't know what it's called.

It's also good used as a crunch element with other lettuces.

For a winter salad, I like it with creamy avocado and segments of fresh orange or grapefruit. It has enough crunch against the avocado and the fruit and yet is bland so you focus on the other elements.

[JAZ]

We made this salad -- Wolfgang Puck's "Chinese" chicken salad -- but used iceberg lettuce instead of the romaine. It worked quite well with the dressing.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Cut into wedges. Brush cut edges with olive oil, salt and pepper. Grill in grill pan or barbeque until somewhat colored. Serve with gribiche sauce.

[rlibkind]

As much as I prefer leaf lettuces, bibb, Boston, etc., iceberg is my go to lettuce when I'm making tacos and want crunch. Tonight it will adorn tacos with shredded lamb breast as the protein.

[andiesenji]

I've always liked iceberg lettuce - I even like it with the old-fashioned (and totally plebian) thick, "Russian" dressing that I remember from my childhood.

I simply slice it crosswise from crown to stem so I have a few similar-sized rounds and some smaller pieces I can break up and distribute on top and then let my guests add their preferred dressings.

When I have guests I set out several little side dishes of olives, capers, chopped hard-boiled eggs, and ?? so they can add their own.

[runwestierun]

I will sometimes use iceberg (but I confess, more often romaine) if I am making a salad with a hot grilled piece of steak. It seems to hold up well next to the heat.

[Jaymes]

Cut into wedges. Brush cut edges with olive oil, salt and pepper. Grill in grill pan or barbeque until somewhat colored. Serve with gribiche sauce.

This looks absolutely terrific. And I can hardly wait to prepare it for a friend that turns up her nose at iceberg lettuce. Not because of anything poor ol' iceberg did or didn't do, I posit, but primarily because it is now so hopelessly out of fashion. In fact, it's SO out of fashion that otherwise bold and brave and competent people are even hesitant to admit they actually like it.

Fascinating, don't you think, that otherwise perfectly sane, confident adults can be so easily intimidated over a foodstuff?

We always have at least three or four types of lettuce in the house. Sometimes, when you want that crunch, nothing else will do. We like it on sandwiches. We use it for various Asian roll-ups. And we always use it in our Israeli-style chopped salads.

Poor iceberg.

How far you've dropped from the days when a big wedge of you adorned with a creamy cascading cape of piquant Roquefort dressing served tableside at the fanciest steakhouses was the veritable height of sophistication.

All well.

You know how it is in culinary fashion. One day you're in.

And the next day....

[annabelle]

Iceberg is the Rodney Dangerfield of lettuces: It don't get no respect.

Well, it does at my house. We love it on sandwiches and in salads, of course. It stores well and doesn't bruise, is available year round and is inexpensive. I'd rather have it than boutique lettuces, although I do grow leaf lettuces in my salad garden. Nothing else looks so elegent as a crisp wedge of iceberg with blue cheese dressing and bacon crumbles on it's own plate.

And they are so easy to prepare and store. Rap them stem end down on the cutting board and the core pops right out. Wash, spin, use what you need and store the rest. I keep mine in an unsealed gallon plastic ziplock bag.