Clean the wild lettuce well. This involves rinsing them
off, soaking them in well salted water for an hour, then rinsing them again.
This will remove any bugs or small snails that are still hanging on, as
well as any leftover snail trails.
In a large pot, sweat your onions, and then put in the garlic at the
last minute.
Turn the heat up to high, and then add the greens, and then put in enough
water to cover them only halfway.
Add the salt.
Put the lid on, and bring it to a boil.
Turn the heat down to low, and let it cook for an hour and a half to
two hours. You'll know they're done when the tangy bitterness has
mellowed to a just-above-collards level.
At this point they can be served hot or frozen in containers with their
soup. Don't discard that soup. It is full of calcium and vitamin
C, and is a lifesaver when you have a cold or flu. For some reason,
it also helps the body regulate its temperature during hot summers or cold
winters.
In
some places, wild lettuce grows like a weed. Instead of throwing
it out, cook it and freeze it. When cooked well, it has a similar
taste to collard greens. It's mildly bitter but very deeply flavorful.
Make sure that you get the kind with long leaves that grow straight from
the ground and have tiny-tiny prickles. It should look something
like this. Some Arab people refer to it as "baby", and some other
folks as "baby lettuce" even though it's a different plant and not just
a younger version of the kind of lettuce you buy at the grocer. Some
kinds of wild lettuce are not good to eat or may have mildly narcotic effects.
The kind with oak-like leaves or that have thick, deeper green leaves with
lots of prickles are a great pain reliever if you're having joint pain.
Eat a bowl of them, and you might find it more effective, not to mention
healthier, than the pills. They're not so good eaten in quantity
though. For normal food, you want the ones with the long, lighter
green leaves. Have someone experienced with foraging or gourmet greens
growing check them if you're not sure.
