Slicing lettuce creates uniform pieces worthy of a salad served in a restaurant.
Lettuce is often ripped into small pieces to make a salad. Tearing lettuce with your hands creates a jumbled, almost easy-going salad; however, if you want a salad with a more clean-cut, restaurant-appropriate appearance, you can cut the lettuce with a knife. Slicing lettuce with a knife results in straight-edged pieces of lettuce. You can use this technique with spinach, romaine and iceberg lettuce to create a restaurant-style green salad.
Instructions
1. Tear the outer layers off the head of lettuce with your hands. Remove two layers or more if the outer layers are quite brown and wilted.
2. Place the head of lettuce on a clean cutting board or countertop able to withstand knife marks. Hold the core of the head of lettuce with one hand and a small, sharp knife in the other hand.
3. Rest the knife perpendicularly on the top of the lettuce at the opposite end of the core, so that the sharp end of the knife is in direct contact with the lettuce. Place the knife roughly 1 to 2 inches from the end, or less of a distance if you want thinner slices of lettuce.
4. Slice straight down through the lettuce until your knife reaches the cutting board or countertop surface. Set the sliced lettuce to one side of the cutting board or surface.
5. Repeat these steps until you cannot slice through the lettuce without cutting into the core. Throw the core away and assemble your sliced lettuce in a bowl for your salad.
Tags: lettuce with, cutting board, head lettuce, board countertop, cutting board countertop