Question:
Dear Advice Guy,
We have an institutional CSA with a local food hub, so the good news is I’m getting great produce! The bad news: It doesn’t align with our business cycle, so I am overwhelmed with lettuce and radishes that are not going to last much longer. Radishes, after I load up salads, I’ve been pickling or throwing into cooked mixed vegetables. Can I cook the lettuce?
– Chef, college foodservice
Answer:
Institutional CSAs (community-supported agriculture) and other farm-to-institution sourcing strategies can be great ways to provide your guests with high-quality produce at a good value while also supporting local farmers and food economies. The concept of a CSA is that you support a farm (or in this case, multiple farms) by prepaying for the season’s bounty, usually a projected number of cases or pounds of produce each week, though its contents will vary. The farmer benefits by getting some up-front cashflow in advance of the season. You benefit by getting good value local produce all season long.
Unfortunately, as you note, the vagaries of the weather and calendar mean that your deliveries may not align with your business needs as they would have had you ordered from a typical produce vendor. This demands a combination of a creative chef, flexible menu, and understanding chef.
To your question, yes! Lettuce is great cooked. It is commonly done in Europe and Asia and much less in the US. I’m not sure why. I like sauteed lettuce. It is great shredded and then used in fried rice or stir-fried noodle dishes. There's also a classic French spring dish of sauteed lettuce and sweet peas with lots of butter. For heartier lettuce like romaine, you can also braise it in some stock and butter (or margarine) or bacon as a side dish or grill it with some flavorful ingredients like goat cheese or romesco sauce spread between the leaves.
If those options don’t appeal, consider trimming down the size of your subscription to cut down on surplus produce you don’t need, barter with an operation that might have complementary demand, or donate before it goes bad.
More on farm-to-institution sourcing here.