Lettuce

Mild, slightly sweet and incredibly refreshing. Darker green leaves like Romaine have a gentle earthiness, while pale hearts are mostly about watery crispness. Some varieties, like Radicchio or Endive, lean into pleasant bitterness.

Lettuce is mostly water, so it's hydrating. It has some vitamin K for blood clotting and sorting out your bones. That's about it. You're eating it for the crunch and to make yourself feel virtuous, not for a nutritional powerhouse.

Look for vibrant, crisp leaves with no signs of wilting or browning at the edges. The heavier the head of lettuce, the more water it contains and the crunchier it will be. Avoid any with slimy patches or a rusty look at the stem.

Keep it cold and slightly damp. Store whole heads in the crisper drawer wrapped in a damp paper towel. If you've washed and dried the leaves, put them in a sealed container with a fresh paper towel to soak up excess moisture and prevent rot.

Mostly used raw to provide structure and crunch to salads, sandwiches and tacos. Sturdier varieties like Cos or Little Gem can actually be grilled or pan-seared for a smoky, charred flavour. Use the larger leaves as a low-carb alternative to wraps or buns.

Bagged salad leaves are washed in chlorine solution to extend shelf life. That's why they're slimy two days after opening — the chlorine has done its job and now the leaves are decomposing. A whole head of lettuce keeps three times longer.

Iceberg lettuce gets a bad rap but it has a job — crunch, water, neutrality. It's the right lettuce for a burger or a wedge salad, the wrong one for everything else.

The darker the leaf, the more flavour and the more nutrients. Cos / romaine, oak leaf, lamb's lettuce, watercress, rocket — all different vegetables doing different jobs.

Lettuce wilts in the fridge from contact with the cold air. Wrap it loose in a damp tea towel inside a bag and it'll last a week.