Braised Lettuce - modified by Vee

NUTRITIONAL INFO AT THE BOTTOM!

So, this is basically just telling you all how I made my Braised Lettuce and what quantities I used. The Braised Lettuce by K recipe is the basic recipe my friend gave me, without amounts because, you can put in as much of whatever you want. But, here's what I used.

1/3 of a medium onion (approx), chopped
1 large clove of garlic, crushed/finely chopped (if you're using smaller cloves it would be 2 or 3. This mother was huge but made it taste amazing, and I love garlic)
1 head of baby gem lettuce, chopped
1 stalk of celery, halved lengthwise and then chopped
1/4 of a Green Bell Pepper, diced
4 Spring Onions, chopped
A pinch of dried Basil and Parsley, Sea Salt, and a dash of Tobasco
1 Chicken Stock Cube
Water

So the order I did this in was similar to the way K laid it out, but here you go:

1. Put the garlic and onions in your pan or pot (I used a pot rather than a frying pan, to make it easier when I added water) and fry gently until softened and yellowed. If you need too, add a little margarine to stop it from sticking to the pan.

2. Smells amazing, doesn't it?? Add the lettuce to the pot, along with the celery and green pepper (as these take a while to cook).

3. After letting it sit for a minute, stir through and then add your chicken stock and enough water to cover the lettuce. I crushed the stock cube over the lettuce and then added the water, but found that I still had a little bit of stock that hadn't dissolved. So I'd recommend mixing the stock in a cup of boiling water, adding that to the pot, and then topping up with some more water if you need to.

4. Add the rest of the ingredients (herbs, spring onion, salt and pepper or other seasonings, and a splash of Tobasco if you want to use it. I added a few drops and it didn't make it spicy, but the flavour was amazing). Stir together, cover and let simmer for a while, until everything is warmed through and the harder ingredients (like celery) have softened a bit. I left mine around 10 minutes, I think, but it could have been left for 20. The stock will also reduce slightly, mm.

5. Serve!

These amounts made around 2 bowls worth, so I'll have to adjust my amounts next time to make less (So there's less wasteage. It would feel like too much of a binge to have two big bowls of soup, and I was pretty full after 1 so no need for extra).

But again, adjust according to how much you want to eat. I've tried this now and it was amazing. I might make some tonight or Friday again so I'll try to take some step by step photographs for you all =]

I'm going to go figure out exactly how many calories are in one bowl, hang on.

NUTRITIONAL INFO : Nutrition Grade A
Serving Size: 106g
Calories Per Serving: 33
Calroies From Fat: 4
Total Fat: 0.5g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 15mg
Total Carbohydrates: 6.7g
Dietary Fiber: 2.2g
Sugars: 2.6g
Protein: 1.4g

Percentage of Daily Guidelines (based on a 2000kcal diet, lawl)
Vitamin A: 49%
Vitamin C: 56%
Calcium: 4%
Iron: 5%
Fat: 1%
Cholesterol: 0%
Sodium: 1%
Total Carbs: 2%
Dietary Fiber: 9%

Finally, I've added it to the Calorie Count Recipe thing so you can quickly add it to your daily totals if you use that website to track your calories. I put in that it makes two servings, as mine made two decent bowls-worth.

Braised Lettuce Info on CalorieCount

Braised Lettuce - By K

Okay guys!

I've been wanting K's recipe for Braised Lettuce for a while and finally got her to email it to me. K is a miracle worker when it comes to calorie-counting, I swear.

Please note that there are no specific quantities involved - it depends entirely on what portion size you want and how much of anything you want to eat. She adapted this from a recipe she found on the BBC Goodfood Website, so check it out if you want.


Ingredients: these are the basic ingredients, you can add additional veggies if you want to, see below
Lettuce
Onion
Garlic
Good quality stock (Vegetable or Chicken)
Salt and pepper


Optional Ingredients:
Mushrooms
Petit pois
Green pepper

Directions:
Finely chop the onion and garlic and fry them til soft in the saucepan. (add mushrooms at this point if using)

Sit chopped lettuce ontop of the onions on a low heat for 5 minutes.

Sprinkle stock over the lettuce and pour in boiling water so the lettuce is just covered.

Season and bring to simmering point, cover for 15 minutes til the stock has reduced slightly.

Add peas or other veggies, cover, cook 30minutes more.

(K suggests to add pepper to your bowl raw so it gives a little crunch =])

The basic mix comes to about 20-30 calories depending on the portion size and stock.

If you have any questions let me know and I'll pass them along to K for you, but overall I think this is a really easy straightforward recipe, and I'm dying to try it =]