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By William Terry Kelley
University of
Georgia
Modern-day salads consist of more than just lettuce, tomatoes,
cucumbers, bell pepper and loads of your favorite dressing.
Boiled eggs, cheese and bacon do add variety. But they also add
lots of fat and calories.
Adding some novel vegetables to your garden may make your salads
tastier and more healthful, too.
Here are a number of salad crops gardeners can grow in most
Georgia gardens at some point in the year. They’re basically
cool-season crops, although they may not stand hard freezes.
Arugula, or rocket or roquette, is
a leafy green that looks a lot like radish leaves. It’s tender
and has a slightly bitter, mustard-like flavor. Arugula can be
used as a flavoring ingredient in soups and vegetable dishes and
makes your salad a bit zestier, too.
It can be grown much in the same way as leaf lettuce, with plants
4 to 6 inches apart in rows 18 to 24 inches apart.
Bok choy, or pak choi, is a
Chinese cabbage related to broccoli, cauliflower and chard. It
has wide, white stalks that lead to a wide, dark green leaf. It
can be stir fried, cooked in soup, eaten raw in salads or cooked
like spinach.
Bok choy can be grown as you would grow broccoli or cabbage. You
can grow Napa types in the same way, but they have a leafier,
tighter head with crinkled leaves and a wide, white midrib.
Escarole,
a green (or red), loose-leaf head. Escarole has a broader leaf
than endive. Endive has ragged leaves that curl at the end. The
center is mild and is yellow-white, while the outer leaves are
more bitter. Radicchio is shaped like cabbage with shiny, smooth,
red leaves with a white midrib.
These can all be used in salads or cooked in other dishes. They
can be grown in the garden in the same manner as lettuce,
allowing 10 to 12 inches between plants. They add flavor and
texture to salads.
Cilantro, or Chinese parsley, is a
type of coriander and looks like parsley with broader leaf tops.
It’s a popular ingredient in Mexican and Chinese dishes. With a
pungent, musty, spicy and aromatic flavor, it can be used in stir
fry, salsa, salads, stews, meats, soups and pickles. You can grow
it in the garden much like regular parsley.
Red-leaf and
that don’t form heads. They may range from light to dark green,
red and bronze. Grow them just like other leaf lettuces. The
leaves may be ruffled or smooth. They can add color and texture
to salads. Or use them in sandwiches or as garnishes.
Romaine lettuce, or Cos lettuce,
is an upright type with a loose head of cupped leaves and a
distinctive midrib. Plant it in rows 12 to 14 inches apart with 8
to 12 inches between plants.
Romaine has very big, crunchy leaves that are more blanched
toward the heart of the plant. Use it in any salad — many salads
you order in restaurants contain Romaine lettuce. Grow romaine
lettuce like other lettuces, but space it a little farther apart.
Swiss chard and
family, except chard lacks the fleshy root the beet has. Chard
has large, fleshy, dark green (or red) leaves with fleshy, white
stalks. Grow chard and beet greens as you do common garden beets.
Use chard in salads, stuffings and egg dishes and cook it as a
vegetable.
Beet greens are simply harvested from the top of the plants. If
you don’t want to harvest the beet you can plant them closer
together.
(Terry Kelley is an Extension Service horticulturist with the
University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences.)
