Home-grown lettuce a base for this tropical salad with a kick

Absolutely nothing like it—fresh lettuce picked straight from the garden! Within a matter of about five minutes last evening some gorgeous new red-leaf lettuce was plucked from the earth, rinsed in the sink, dried with paper towels, and being passed around at our dinner table as the basis for Tropical Blueberry Salad. I’ve never crunched into something so lovely. Another survivor of the Super Bowl-week freeze in our garden, lettuce is wrongfully presumed to be delicate and vulnerable. Tough as nails yet tender to the taste! If folks had any idea of the difference between supermarket lettuce and the kind that is home-grown, they’d be outside turning up any square inch of dirt they could muster into a mini-garden for greens.

The salad itself was not to be outdone by the dynamite lettuce. Tropical Blueberry Salad coupled fresh blueberries with fresh pineapple chunks. Giving it a real kick was a jalapeño pepper, grated lime peel, and hot-pepper sauce. Although the recipe (courtesy Celebrating a Healthy Harvest) suggested refrigerating the mixture for one hour before serving, I’d recommend letting this marinate overnight so the unusual flavor combo of the sweet and the fire-laden elements can blend and work their magic in this odd-couple pairing.

High in antioxidants and manganese, pineapple also has been lauded for maintaining good eye health, particularly in preventing age-related eye problems such as macular degeneration. And of course the health benefits of blueberries continue to be sung loudly from the highest hill: they’re said to rank number-one in the world of anti-oxidants. For the aging they’re considered bright rays of hope to those of us in Geezerville, because they’re thought to help keep the memory sharp for a long time.

Along with the never-been-fresher red-leaf lettuce (since red and dark-green leafy vegetables are generally higher in nutrients than light greens), who could argue with this salad combination?

Tropical Blueberry Salad

2 cups fresh blueberries

2 cups fresh pineapple chunks

1 tablespoon fresh jalapeño peppers, chopped

2 teaspoons lime peel, grated

dash of hot-pepper sauce

enough red-leaf lettuce to line four salad plates

Combine blueberries, pineapple, jalapeño peppers, lime peel, and hot-pepper sauce; stir gently to blend. Refrigerate for 1 hour or preferably overnight. Serve on a bed of lettuce. Makes 4 servings.