Salanova is a new kind of lettuce, with a registered trademark, which has been developed by Dutch seed specialists Rijk Zwaan. It’s allowed to grow for longer than most ‘baby’ lettuce.

Although the salanova lettuce leaves are small, they are attractive, and have a lot of flavor.

Many of us are used to buying whole lettuce heads. We wash them and separate the leaves. In 15 minutes we have a salad ready for dinner. Then there is the siren call of the ready-washed and cut lettuce which is sometimes impossible to resist in today’s rushed world of eating as opposed to dining. Open the bag, toss in some microgreens and a little dressing and voila you have a salad.

Salanova however may be a better answer. The leaves connect together at the bottom rather than growing, at intervals, off a central stem. As a result if you simply make a quick indented circle around the stem at the bottom all the leaves fall apart instantly. Advantage is time saving and very little waste.

Salanova lettuces are small. One head though gives between two and four times the yield of a normal lettuce and has up to double the shelf life. Advantage cost saving. Buying fresh with less waste and longer shelf life.

There are two types of salanova lettuce, one with incised leaves with an attractive frilly texture; and the ‘multi-leaf’ which has lots of uniform, small leaves. I think the ‘uniform’ type is less interesting as I like a mix of textures, sizes and colours, but the solution is to buy a couple of different types. There are two colours of both types to choose from, emerald or deep crimson.

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