You may not be surprised to hear that the most frequently tossed food in the UK is salad. We’re not talking about adding a delicious dressing and croutons, we mean tossed straight in the bin. Forty five percent of all purchased salad is thrown away!

We’ve all seen supermarket lettuce become a soggy, wilted mess mere hours after chopping. Often the bags of spinach on sale are so big that a family of four would struggle to eat it all before it goes bad. It’s easy to overestimate the amount you need to serve. It’s also very difficult to resuscitate salad once it’s past its prime.

Saving Salad

You may not be able to stop your salads from wilting, but you can make choices that ensure you can enjoy them even after they lose their youthful glow. One way is to make your salads with greens that taste equally delicious raw and cooked. There are dozens of greens available at your local market or supermarket that benefit from cooking, and a lot of them have flavour profiles that are more complex than your basic romaine.

Spinach, kale, endive, rocket, chard — the list goes on. Make sure the dressings and added ingredients are ok to cook too; cheeses work well, as do toasted nuts, onions, and tomatoes. Double this tasty spinach recipe to have half as a salad today, and cook up the other half tomorrow. For undressed greens, try throwing them in curries, soups, stews or even smoothies.