Lovely Leaves: A Guide to Salad Greens

Known for its elongated, somewhat stiff leaves, this Caesar salad staple is crispy and mildly earthy. One and a half cups of Romaine provides about 35% of the vitamin A and 25% of the folate you should get in a day, plus nearly three-quarters of the ideal amount of vitamin K.

The most common types of butterheads are Bibb and Boston. Their pale- to medium-green outer leaves are soft and buttery, while the inner leaves have a surprising crunch and a sweet, mild flavor. The USDA notes that 1 ½ cups of butter lettuce contains 15% of your daily needs for both vitamin A and folate and 70% of your vitamin K needs. 

Iceberg is very crunchy with a neutral, watery flavor and is therefore popular for wedge salads. Like most greens, it's low in calories. Though it might not offer as much nutritional value as some other options, 1 ½ cups does provide 20% of the vitamin K you need in a day.

Fluttery leaf lettuce may be used to add color and earthy flavor to salads. The ruffly tips are more tender than the sturdier base of the leaves. Leaf lettuce’s nooks and crannies hold dressings well. Just 1 ½ cups of green leaf lettuce offers up to 20% of your daily vitamin A and 50% of your daily vitamin K needs. 

It's not cabbage or lettuce but rather a type of chicory. Radicchio's tight head of wine-red leaves lined with bright white veins brings balance and pleasant bitterness when mixed with sweeter greens. Rich in vitamin K, 1 cup provides nearly 85% of your daily needs.

These small, very tightly packed compact heads are white to pale yellow with individual leaves shaped like long, narrow scoops. Slice these mildly bitter leaves crosswise and use them in tossed salads, or top and fill single leaves to serve as hors d'oeuvres. Endive is a good source of folate, with 1 cup fulfilling about 18% of your daily needs, plus 60% of your vitamin C and virtually all your vitamin K needs.

You might want to call this curly endive frizzy, but the word is pronounced free-ZAY. It's great for adding texture and bitterness to mixed green salads. A single 1-cup serving of frisée is a good source of vitamin C and meets one-third of the daily recommendation for vitamin A.

Slightly peppery arugula is sometimes called rocket. The dark green, deeply lobed leaves of arugula (which is actually a cruciferous vegetable in the same family as broccoli!) are delicate and tender. One cup of raw arugula provides 25% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin K.

Milder and sweeter than regular spinach, the rounded dark green leaves of baby spinach are nicely tender as a salad green. One cup has 25% of the USDA's recommendation of vitamin A and 100% of vitamin K.