Lettuce Alternatives: AKA- Keep Eating Salads Without Risking Cyclosporiasis

As you start growing more of your own fresh produce you realize pretty quickly that early spring lettuces bolt by July and leave you longing for something green, crisp, and light to add to your salad bowl during the hottest part of summer.

But there are some obvious reasons to skip buying lettuce at the grocery store.

2026 is the year of the cyclosporiasis outbreak. It is a disease transmitted by a microscopic parasite and gives people extreme diarrhea. The number of reported cases of cyclosporiasis is nearing 12,000 in 30 states according to Johns Hopkins.

I have the article, Local Food For Thought and have been helping people grow more of their own food and creating ways to know your farmer as parts of the solution. Also, we need better working conditions for those growing and harvesting food on large scale commercial farms. But I digresss…

So, over the years I’ve come up with what works for me in my garden to keep enjoying salads all summer long. Adding even one of these lettuce alternatives will help you eat fresh crisp salads into the dog days of summer!

But also, these crop alternatives can’t be too fussy about things, because while I LOVE salad, late summer is also absolute go time for all the things on our small homestead- from harvesting and preserving, and trying to keep up with weeding, so I do not have time for fussy plants that don’t produce!

Let’s start with the exception first…

Slow-to-Bolt Lettuce Varieties

Canasta makes it into mid-July in my zone 4 Minnesota garden when planted in part shade or under another taller plant. Canasta along with Winter Density are the varieties that have consistently held their sweet, crispy crunch the longest in my gardens. You can take a deep dive and read my article on Growing Great Lettuce.

Leafy Greens that Hold Up in the Heat

Kale

Sturdy and still small and tender during the summer months, I like ‘Darkibor’ and ‘Marrowstem’ varieties for adding to greens mixes. They do get tougher as the season goes on, and they get sweeter once a frost hits them. But they’re a solid sub for lettuces during the dog days of summer!

Nappa Cabbage

These are often very mild, and do not bolt nearly as early as lettuce. I especially like the variety ‘Bilko’ as a stand in for greens. You can cut out the thicker rib if you want, but I like the added crunch and heft it gives to salads. The inner leaves also make wonderful ‘scoops’ to place other cold salads onto. (think egg salad and chicken salad). I especially love using the purple Nappa variety Merlot for Asian inspired lettuce wraps, I mean come on how beautiful is that!?!

Baby Beet Leaves

When harvested young, beet greens are mild, sweet and oh so tender. I plant beets thicker than recommended, and a little later in the season in order to harvest out lots of beet leaves to replace other greens. Try Avalanche, an all white variety that has the mildest beets and leaves I’ve ever tasted.

Baby Swiss Chard

Timing is everything when looking to lettuce alternatives.

Swiss chard is unbelievably tender and enjoyable raw in salads when the leaves are still small, slightly shiny and curled. It also adds beautiful bursts of color and a flavor contrast to other salad ingredients.

Bonus points for growing rainbow varieties to up the color fun factor.

Malabar Spinach

I think Red Malabar (shown in photo) taste a little earthier than beet leaves, but make the cut because they keep producing right through July and August.

They are also beautiful vining plants that adorn my arching trellises and fill in where diseased bean and tomato leaves have been cut back. They get a late start here in Minnesota but comes through when everything else is wilting.

Both red and green varieties available, I’ve only grown the red.

Quick-Growing Options: Microgreens

Always an option and ready in 2 weeks, easy to grow indoors even in the hottest weather. From arugula, cabbages, broccoli and pea shoots- lots of flavor options and texture benefits. While I don’t usually have time or energy to do this in late summer, I do love growing microgreens in the winter.

Garden Vegetables that Work as Lettuce Alternatives

Zucchini

File this under “Use What You’ve Got”. 

Now here me out, using a mandolin ‘small shred’ to make mini-sticks of zucchini leaves enough crunch to be a great base layer of many salads and completely takes the place of lettuce in many of my late summer salads. Making ‘zoodles’ is another easy way to sub in zucchini. Slicing it thin into discs can also work for layering on sandwiches.

Obviously, go for the smaller zucchini’s here, and scoop out the fleshy core and larger seeds. Or you can use the big guys for Zucchini Sweet Relish, Fritters, or one of my other Zillion Ways to Zucchini.

Shredded or Sliced Cucumber

Same as Zucchini, but even more crunch and lightness. And I know cucumbers can stand on their own as a salad, like the viral tiktok @logagagm showcases.

I recommend using a mandolin ‘shred’ or ‘slice’ not a cheese grater, and if the cucumber is large, scoop out the seeds.  I suggest only shredding what you want to use right away because cucumber tends to go limp quickly.

Once the weather starts cooling a little, I’ll replant lettuce, arugula, spinach  etc- usually under a shade cloth to keep them from getting too hot…

I hope these lettuce alternatives help get you through the late summer slump- AND far away from any Cyclosporiasis outbreaks.

Dig In,
Michelle