Lettuce plant and its varieties

Lettuce plant has about a hundred varieties. Head and leaf lettuces of a wide variety of colors - from soft green to purple and dark burgundy - and shapes, regardless of type and variety, have excellent taste and contain a truly huge amount of minerals, vitamins and other useful substances. Initially, the lettuce plant was grown exclusively for the oils contained in its seeds, and only after some time did ancient gourmets taste the leaves of this crop. Since then the salad became a welcome guest on many tables and an integral part of hundreds and thousands of a wide variety of dishes.

The most common type of lettuce is leaf lettuce, which, in turn, has a considerable number of varieties (for example, lollo biondo and lollo rosso). All varieties of this crop have a characteristic, pronounced taste and are widely used for preparing all kinds of vegetable salads and side dishes for meat dishes. Not far behind leaf lettuce in popularity its close relative is head lettuce, the leaves of which gather during development into small round-shaped formations, externally reminiscent of loose heads of ordinary cabbage.

Another extremely popular type of this crop is watercress, which has won the love of gourmets. thanks to its quite piquant taste. This variety of vegetable is ideal for preparing not only salads, but also a variety of sauces.The so-called ice salad, or iceberg, is very common and widely used in many cuisines of the world, characterized by a soft, delicate taste and a characteristic crunch of juicy leaves.