I dare anyone not to be intrigued by lettuce bread. Not using lettuce as “bread” but baking actual lettuce into bread.
Diane Lewis Hanger’s recipe did not give a lot of clues. The directions said it was better the next day and the scant headnote said it was “a delicate quick bread”. My initial thought was that it was going to be a savory bread but a look at the amount of sugar called for in the original recipe put an end to that speculation.
The recipe didn’t specify what kind of lettuce–my hunch is iceberg which is grown in fields I’ve visited myself not far away from Carmel-by-the-Sea where the book is from–but I decided to go with romaine since I was placing an order with a local farm and it’s in season now. I also thought the heartier leaves might be better somehow–less likely to turn to mush? Unless mush was what was supposed to happen? This is why recipes need headnotes.
Once I started thinking of lettuce bread as sort of a variation on zucchini bread, the spices and walnuts made a little more sense. I had it plain but I bet it would be good with some cream cheese spread.
I kept the spices the same–I love mace so much and ginger is classic. I did double the amount of flour because I feel like 1 cup must have been a misprint or mistake. One cup of flour does not a bread make! I also added a little buttermilk to give the bread a lighter, better texture. The recipe called for just the zest of a lemon but I added the juice as well. Without both, I think the bread would be very dry.
We thought the bread was tasty and well worth making! It made the house smell delicious all afternoon. I loved the ribbons of lettuce you could see in each slice.
Lettuce Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- ⅓ cup buttermilk, at room temperature
- ½ cup canola oil
- zest and juice from one lemon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground mace
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup firmly packed finely chopped romaine lettuce
- ⅓ cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a loaf pan. Set aside.
- In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the sugar, eggs, buttermilk, oil, zest, juice, and spices until smooth. Add in the flour and mix until a thick batter forms. Fold in the lettuce and nuts.
- Bake for 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean or with just one or two moist crumbs.
- Cool in pan, on a wire rack for 15 minutes then invert and cool completely on the wire rack before slicing and serving.
adapted and updated from Diane Lewis Hanger’s Lettuce Bread appearing in The Padre Cooks: Recipes from Sea and Shore Carmel-by-the-Sea compiled by Carmel High School Class of 1951. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California 2001
