Chapter 4. Classic 90s/00s Salad

My mom’s general rule with any fatty chicken and bread loaded meal, like a post-sunday supper, was to have a salad to balance things out. My family’s go to for a salad base was often iceberg lettuce, or a bag of pre-chopped iceberg lettuce mixed with carrot sticks.

Flash forward to today and I can’t imagine eating iceberg lettuce on a burger, much less in a salad. However, the absence of iceberg lettuce in my diet isn’t because I have negative associations with it (like I do oatmeal and peanut butter) or that I don’t like the taste, but that it’s unacceptable in my social circle to like it.

When I first started farming I began to see that most of the chefs and farmers I admired looked at iceberg lettuce with some level disgust. They preferred mixed baby greens, romaine, dark leafy greens, and other more sophisticated greens for salads, sandwiches, and casual noshing.

I was taught that people who ate iceberg lettuce, much less grew it, were ill informed and to be looked down upon in one way or another. These days, it’s not just fellow farmers hating on iceberg lettuce but my “foodie” friends too. Some of whom would bemoan iceberg lettuce if it were put in front of them, which I think is fair considering iceberg lettuce is another crop that’s been manipulated by large corporations. Decimating the plant’s species diversity, or at least making them less known, and exploiting farm workers.

And while I’m not trying to reclaim iceberg lettuce or anything like that, I am done pretending as though I absolutely hate eating it.

In fact, I have fond memories of eating iceberg as a kid, especially since it was a symbol of better times coming after a period of food scarcity in the home. During those periods if we had food, a large portion of it was packaged and highly processed. Therefore when fresh foods like lettuce and tomatoes started to show up again, and they were very likely conventionally grown, it was a sign to me that things were starting to look up. Maybe the electricity might come back on soon too.

At some points my grandparents may have had fresh produce to share from their gardens, but they lived far from us and the need for them to bring us food more frequently was more a sign to me that things were rough.

Hard times or not, iceberg lettuce was something I looked forward to eating as a kid! I loved how it was as refreshing as a glass of water sans the glass. I loved that you could peel its layers like an onion without the tears. I loved smashing it on the table to separate its juicy leaves from its core and tearing it up and immersing it in water and spinning it in a salad mixer for the family dinner. I loved mixing together thousand island dressing or red wine vinaigrette and dousing it over my serving. 

For me, iceberg lettuce is just as important as all the other crops in my food story because it sustained me in a multitude of ways growing up, and while I understand the many roots of anti-iceberg sentiments, it’s a sentiment that I’ve never genuinely held. My early experiences with iceberg were that it was refreshing on a myriad of levels and a symbol of food security returning to the home. That’s complicated for me to admit, but also more true. 

All that being said, wanting to climb out of my lived experience and not be completely scolded by my friends, I wanted to learn more about iceberg lettuce’s origins and its history here in the U.S, giving a broader context of iceberg’s implications on the food system and maybe why my family ate it so much. You can find that here.

In the meantime, if you’re really annoyed with iceberg lettuce, this gallery also includes a bomb ratio for an herbal dressing (some might call it Italian, but that’s a debate for another day) and you can swap in any greens and tasty roots and fruits to make this more reflective of your values. I typically use kale for my salads and think this dressing with some feta, apples, and quinoa tastes great :D

The Receipt - Classic 90s/00s Iceberg Salad

Basic Base:

1 head of iceberg lettuce

1 carrot, cut into matchsticks

Herbal Dressing:

1 large lemon, zested and juiced

2 tbsp. White vinegar

2 tbsp. Honey

1 tsp. Oregano, dried or fresh

1 tsp. Parsley, dried or fresh

¼ tsp. Crushed Black Pepper

¼ tsp. Cumin, ground

¾-1 cup Olive oil

2-3 tbsp. Water (optional)

1. Place iceberg on a cutting board and remove core from center. Cut into wedges and then dice into medium-size cubes. Add in carrot matchsticks.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, zest, honey, herbs, and spices. Then slowly add in olive oil until mixture begins to thicken. Taste the dressing and adjust salts and spices as needed. Water is optional but you can add a few teaspoons at a time if needed to adjust the flavor.

3. Pour dressing over lettuce and carrots, toss to combine and serve.