Lettuce Pray...for more lettuce recipes

After reading my post about lettuce soup, reader "greenhorn" challenged me to "stretch" his or her thinking on lettuce past salads and sandwich toppings.

I love a good challenge, which is another way of saying I take requests. Channeling my inner rabbit, let's get to it:

The first thing that came to mind was using lettuce as a wrap or a bread substitute. I first experienced this usage at Chinese restaurants that use crisp leaves of iceberg as a vessel for minced chicken and pine nuts instead of wrapping and frying it like an egg or spring roll. You can find this appetizer homogenized, er, franchised at P.F. Chang's.

Over the years, I've adopted the lettuce wrap method as a substitute for pita bread (or when I'm still hungry, but don't want to eat another pita's worth). Usually, this means enveloping chicken or egg salad in greenery. And no, I'm not sure which one came first.

I haven't gone so far as to replace tortillas with a lettuce taco or burrito. While it can be done, I just can't support that move. I like tortillas too much. And you can keep your spinach tortillas

On the side dish front, pickled lettuce sounds fun. I can't say I've tried it, but at least it's kosher! On a similar vibe, how about lettuce hamburger relish, with the world's simplest recipe instructions: "Mix ingredients together thoroughly. Spread on top of hamburgers."

Back to Chinese food, this fried lettuce dish looks tasty. Again, I don't speak from experience, but it seems like it would change how you think of lettuce.

As for lettuce dessert--you're on your own. Well, you and the rabbits.