Anyone who’s been to a Mexican family celebration knows the phenomenon: while tacos, tamales, and pozole disappear in record time, the lovingly prepared ensalada usually sits alone on the buffet. Lettuce in Mexico? That’s a complicated relationship.
The Iceberg in a Tropical Paradise
My visit to Mexican supermarkets in 2024 was enlightening: I looked for the various salad varieties I knew from Germany but found very little selection, mostly wrapped in plastic. For most Mexicans, lechuga is at best a topping for tacos dorados or the base for a pambazo – but definitely not the star of the plate.
Interestingly, lettuce originally comes from the Mediterranean and only came to the Americas through Spanish colonization. Mexico is actually one of the world’s top 10 producers today and exports about 50% of its production. More than 90% of Mexico’s lettuce production consists of iceberg or romaine lettuce. The entire lettuce production is concentrated, interestingly, in central and northwestern Mexico, with Guanajuato producing about a quarter of total production and able to grow year-round. Despite this impressive production, there remains widespread awareness that unsterilized lechuga can transmit bacteria through contaminated irrigation water – a situation that, especially in restaurants and other food establishments, leads to reluctance about raw salad, where customers cannot know if the salad was properly cleaned.
The Green Revolution of Office Workers
From my time in Mexico City, I observed how modern salad bars and cafés attracted office workers – though mostly for a pragmatic reason: weight loss. Ensaladas seemed here less like a culinary experience and more like a necessary tool on the path to the desired figure. A particular challenge: you have to pass countless street stands, taquerías, and other tempting but fatty delicacies that line the business district.
Mexico’s True Green Heroes
Yet many overlook that Mexico has a rich tradition of green dishes – just not with lettuce. The Ensalada de Nopales (cactus salad) and Salpicón (cold meat salad) are authentically Mexican creations. More importantly: on tostadas, sopes, and other nixtamal products, you find daily piles of cilantro, parsley, and quelites – a Nahuatl term for young plants or vegetables like verdolagas or hoja santa. Although quelites can also be eaten raw, there are emblematic dishes in which quelites like romeritos or huauzontle are cooked. Lettuce is certainly used in tacos and other dishes, but only as one option and not as a standalone dish, rather as an optional element.
The Green That Really Counts
In international restaurants, salad is traditionally served as an appetizer – a concept foreign to Mexican food culture. In my opinion, that’s because lettuce never belonged to Mexican food culture and was never adopted by the population. With so many exciting local ingredients, lettuce simply didn’t make it to become a fundamental element of Mexican cuisine. Quelites are also leaves like lettuce, but the texture, shape, and flavor are completely different. These are very abundant in Mexico and well integrated, though most quelites are hard to find in big-city supermarkets, while they’re more readily available in the countryside or at mercados.
Perhaps the wisdom lies here: instead of copying imported salad culture, Mexico has preserved its own green traditions. Quelites instead of lettuce, community instead of individuality, tradition instead of trend.
Photo by Jonathan Reynaga:
https://www.pexels.com/de-de/foto/teller-mexikanisch-tisch-appetizer-17429144/
