Sandwich

Just Stop! Putting So Much Lettuce on Your Sandwich

I love a salad, but I do not want a whole salad on my sandwich.

March  7, 2022
Photo by Andia/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

I don’t know if it’s because I grew up among immigrant adults or if reading Dante’s Inferno in high school taught me that there’s an entire circle of hell for the wasteful, but I absolutely dread not finishing a meal. If I come to your house, you serve me dinner, and I don’t finish it all, I will literally think about it for the next 24 hours. It doesn’t even matter if the cooking was bad—I just can’t stand leaving anything on the plate. I am always John Candy in The Great Outdoors eating every single piece of steak, even the gristle. That is why I find the overuse of greens on sandwiches to be especially disturbing. If I wanted a salad with my sandwich then I would have ordered one. Instead, I get a sandwich with a pile of leaves on it, and I feel obligated to stuff them all in my mouth.

Getting the feeling that somebody went outside and raked whatever was growing in the garden onto my sandwich is one thing; what’s even worse is the truly disturbing amount of tasteless, worthless shredded iceberg. At this point I’m convinced iceberg is a weed that covers the planet, and perfectly decent sandwich makers just get a steep discount on it, thinking it will add some crispness to the finished product, when all it does is make the sandwich taste wet or dirty, or usually both. The madness, I say, must end.

You’re probably reading this and thinking to yourself that we’re in the middle of a pandemic and maybe I should concern myself with that. To which I say you are absolutely right—but we’re also in the middle of unprecedented food shortages, with a reported 71 percent of shoppers fearing they’ll go to their local grocery store and find the shelves mostly empty. This is about too much lettuce on the club you ordered at the diner, but it’s also about food waste. It’s about me and countless other people saying “There’s way too much watercress on this roast beef sandwich,” and tossing most of it away. That little bit of watercress, romaine, or radicchio you don’t want between bread adds up and contributes to the 30 to 40 percent of our food supply that ends up in the trash. It wouldn’t fix the world's troubles if places started using a little less leafage on sandwiches, but every little bit helps.

Ilene Rosen might be the perfect expert to talk with on this subject. She’s the co-owner of the popular Brooklyn shop R&D Foods, and the James Beard award–winning author of the book Saladish. So if anybody understands sandwiches and greens, it’s Rosen.

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Top Comment:
“I don't eat out. I love sandwiches. I also love a LOT of greens on my sandwich :) ... different strokes...”
— Liz S.
Comment

I’ve been a customer at R&D since the shop opened up in 2014. The coffee is great. Ilene, co-owner Sara Dima, and the staff are always friendly and welcoming, and that alone keeps me coming back. But I live in a part of Brooklyn where good sandwich choices aren’t hard to find. Everything from humble bodega subs to new-school places like Court Street Grocers and Winner and classics like Defonte’s are a short trip from my apartment. I have to really like your place to keep going back, and R&D has me on a steady one sandwich per week rotation because, simply put, they put thought into every ingredient that goes between the bread. Nothing feels like overkill, and nothing murders a sandwich like overkill. As Rosen puts it, “Balance and proportion are everything in sandwiches, as in life.”

Balance is everything. And besides the fact that I just don’t want too much of anything on a sandwich, I find nothing throws things off more than too many greens. It soaks up most of the flavor, and the cheese or the meat, the mustard or mayo, even the other condiments, tend to blend into the lettuce or the sprouts or the spinach or whatever. “Throwing on lettuce or whatever should never be a knee-jerk reaction,” says Rosen. “If I go somewhere to have a sandwich—and I do that a lot, because sandwiches became my pandemic obsession (salads have moved to the back burner)—and I encounter a menu where every sandwich has the same green, I immediately assume I’m in for a bad experience.”

While I understand that sometimes the greens are the main attraction on the salad—like the kale salad sandwich I have ordered many times at R&D, for instance—Rosen says that to make a great sandwich, “Know the roles each item is playing, and the end result sings.” She says that knowing the flavor profile of the green should be no different from the decision to pair a certain kind of meat with a specific cheese. “Choose something that makes sense with the combination of the sandwich, and use it in appropriate proportion.”

The ideal situation for any greens on a sandwich can be found at a place like Frady’s, the colorful food shop in the Bywater section of New Orleans that is always my first stop when I visit. When I get something like a roast beef or oyster po’boy, lettuce is a necessary addition. But since I like my sandwich loaded up, I tell them: “Not too much lettuce.” As I stood watching them make my lunch the last time I was at Frady's, the guy behind the counter asked if what he put on was a good amount for me. “I just want you to enjoy your sandwich,” he said. I appreciated that.

Obviously not every sandwich situation is going to be like the one at Frady’s, and I don’t feel the need to be controlling and obsessive about my order like I’m Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally. I do say “Not too much lettuce” as a way of combating being wasteful. But I’m one person and can only order so many sandwiches. My hope is that every sandwich creator out there, both professional and amateur, heeds the words of Rosen and appreciates the fact that while every ingredient is important, the greens need to play a minor role when placed between two slices.

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16 Comments

hulk May 7, 2024
That's green leaf lettuce not iceberg
 
Mitchell March 14, 2022
Yeah... this is giving me Buzzfeed-level of *eyeroll, with their inane articles. This is not what I would expect from Food52 with, typically, more insightful, fun, and creative postings.
 
MKETom March 11, 2022
God YES!!! I've been thinking the same thing for years!
 
Friskiedgrrl March 11, 2022
While YOU may complain about the supposed excess of lettuce, some of us actually enjoy the cool, crunchy greenery inside a sandwich. Like adding a touch of savoury to something sweet, lettuce brings out the amazing taste balance to meats, and cheeses. Lettuce should be an equal participant in 21st century hand meals.
 
Janice March 10, 2022
Greens - of any kind are some of the healthiest foods we can eat. I pile greens on pizza once it’s done baking! If I went out to order a sandwich, it would be plant based because that’s how I eat. It would be a sad day if my sandwich had one lettuce leaf on it. If there was an overabundance of lettuce, I would remove some and take it home (maybe with the extra half of the sandwich) and use it in another way. I would never leave it on the plate to be thrown out. With the high cost of food, I think I’d be thrilled to have another meal for the price of one!
 
jcnNorcal March 9, 2022
Mas lechuga, por favor. Muy delicioso!
 
Sylvia March 8, 2022
I can agree that food waste should be avoided & even appreciate your ask for less lettuce - as is your preference and right - on your sandwich. I personally enjoy lettuce on my sandwiches, from arugula to romaine to baby gems. To each their own, I guess.
 
Sam1148 March 7, 2022
It's odd the pic that heads the article. IS NOT SHREDDED ICEBERG LETTUCE. It's Romaine, not iceberg...or shredded.
Right now, we have a bit of supply chain issue about most everything.
Deli's...etc. Have to make due with what's on the dock. So, adjust your high chair and eat your sandwich. Maybe create a article about lettuce types, availability and uses for those type? Be helpful.
 
jcnNorcal March 10, 2022
I think it's actually "green leaf" lettuce.
 
tia March 7, 2022
When I was in college, I worked in a sandwich shop on campus. One day, this guy comes in and rattles off his order, and says "And no lettuce." And I ask about that, because I liked chatting with my customers, and frankly it wasn't the sort of thing we got a lot of call to leave out. He said "Oh, it's inefficient."

I blinked. "...Are you by any chance an engineering professor?" I asked. I was not at all surprised when he said he was. It's still my favorite response to why someone might not want lettuce on their sandwich.
 
TXExpatInBKK March 10, 2022
This made me laugh at myself because I was nodding along with the article thinking, "Lettuce isn't even necessary in most sandwiches" and then see your comment and totally see myself! I'm an engineer... must be something in the way we're wired ;-)
 
Sam1148 March 7, 2022
Stop hating what I like.
This is like an article I'd write when I was five about the perfect PB J Sandwich.
Noo....you don't just slather it on there and slap on jelly...you put the PB/jelly in a bowl, and use a fork to mix it up into a mass. Then lightly toasted bread with a drizzle of honey...assemble and cut off the crusts. Now, cut it in to triangles and serve it on PLAN PAPER PLATES.
/well I was five. I got over it. Some do not.
 
Liz S. March 7, 2022
I don't eat out. I love sandwiches. I also love a LOT of greens on my sandwich :) ... different strokes...
 
Liz S. March 7, 2022
In fact, since I live rurally and since greens from the grocer have exceptionally short lives (Winter), I grow my own micogreens so that I CAN have lots on my sandwiches.
 
Smaug March 8, 2022
Articles on this site tend to be slanted heavily toward the views of NYC apartment dwellers, for whom having their food prepared by strangers is evidently the norm. Unfortunately, it seems to be headed that way for much of the world- for instance, newspaper food sections barely even bother with recipes or cooking advice, just a lot of restaurant promotion- so different from even a decade ago. It is an inherently wasteful way to go about it, and a huge driver of inflation- you end up paying many times the cost of the food for every meal.
 
Kristaso March 7, 2022
Yes. Yes. Yes!!!!!