BBQ Lettuce

You may not have thought about barbequing your salad but once you’ve tried lettuce on the BBQ you’ll be hooked. Lettuce cooks quickly and you get these beautiful scorch marks, soft, charred outer leaves and crunchy inner leaves. I serve gem lettuce without anything extra and I serve iceberg lettuce drizzled with dressing and sometimes bacon bits (if I remember to make them). This easy BBQ side dish is a regular feature at my summer table.

INGREDIENTS
gem lettuce
vegetable or olive oil
ground sea salt

• Heat the barbeque to 180-200°C. Cut the lettuce lengthways keeping the base in tact then brush all over with oil.
• Place the lettuce rounded side down first and cook for 2.5 minutes before carefully turning over and cooking for another 2.5 minutes.
• Put the lettuce, cut side up, into a serving bowl and grind over with sea salt.

• If you’re using iceberg lettuce then cut it into half or quarters (quarters will fall apart more easily but you get more char marks). Cook the same as above then transfer to a dish and drizzle with salad dressing – I like 1tbsp mayo, 1 lemon juiced, 1tbsp olive oil, pinch of salt and chilli flakes – then finish with finely chopped spring onions and bacon bits.