Alright, alright, I know what you’re thinking. But honestly this works much better than it really has any right to.
Tonight’s dinner was driven by a combination of those three most important factors: a need to eat at least some vegetables, a head of lettuce in the fridge that is in dire need of using up before it goes off, and having forgotten to buy any other ingredients for dinner.
Lettuce actually works surprisingly well when cooked. It loses most of that “lettucy” flavour, but retains a good crunch through much more cooking than you’d expect.
Ingredients:
- 1 head romaine lettuce
- 150g frozen spinach
- 1 large onion
- 285g tin of sliced mushrooms
- 2 tsp garlic puree / 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tsp tomato puree
- 2 tsp curry powder
- Dried chilli flakes (to preference)
- 1 tsp Maggi liquid seasoning
- 1 tbsp full fat milk
- Butter for frying
- Salt
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Slice the onion into half rings and stir fry with the sliced mushrooms in the butter over a medium heat until the onions are soft.
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Add the curry powder, garlic and tomato and fry another couple of minutes.
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Shred and add lettuce and the chilli flakes and fry for 5 minutes.
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Thaw and chop the spinach leaves and then add that to the pan, frying for another 5 minutes.
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Mix in the milk, the liquid seasoning, and salt to taste.
Recipe notes:
Romaine lettuce is what I had so it’s what’s in it. I cannot personally vouch for the results with other lettuce varieties, but I can’t see it working especially badly with any variety. Your mileage may vary.
I’ve said “tinned mushrooms” because it’s what I had and used and this is an honest recipe, but obviously use fresh mushrooms if you prefer.
Maggi liquid seasoning is a solid staple for South Asian cooking; it’s made from wheat, but it’s functionally just a vehicle for tasty, tasty MSG. I’m told there are other brands, but Maggi is the one you tend to see in supermarket World Food aisles. If you don’t have it, soy sauce (especially the dark variety) is a decent substitute.
I’ve used lettuce in stiry fries many times, but not in something that cooks a bit slower like this. I’ll give it a go (the kids will hate it, but they have no vote).
