The Definitive Ranking Of Salad Greens

    In salad, as in life, it makes a difference what you put on the bottom. I think I'm saying that salad greens are like pants. And some pants are ugly.

    Rachel Sanders
    by Rachel Sanders

    BuzzFeed Staff

    17. Spinach

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    You know what's great? Cooked spinach. You know what has the mouthfeel of dental floss wrapped around chalk? Raw spinach. GET OUT OF MY SALAD.

    16. Curly Endive (a.k.a. Frisée a.k.a. Chicory)

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    Curly endive, unlike its Belgian cousin, has NO chill. It has the opposite of chill. Please avoid.

    15. Radicchio

    Getty Images/iStockphoto Christian-Fischer

    So maybe I once confused radicchio with red cabbage and maybe I made a coleslaw out of it anyway and maybe that coleslaw was so inedibly bitter that I'm still kinda mad WHAT ABOUT IT.

    14. Mixed Greens (a.k.a. Mesclun)

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    Who even knows what the heck is in here? Whatever it is, it's ALWAYS slimy. If you want to feel like you're in a shitty restaurant in the early 2000's that's trying too hard, mesclun is for you!

    13. Green Cabbage

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    Green cabbage doesn't have a lot of friends.

    12. Green Leaf Lettuce

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    It's fine.

    11. Red Leaf Lettuce

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    Like green leaf lettuce, but cooler, because part of it is red.

    10. Curly Kale

    Getty Images/iStockphoto Barbro Bergfeldt

    I would tell you about this kale but I can't because my mouth is tired from chewing.

    9. Belgian Endive

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    Endive is cool in the way that a European exchange student is cool; you may never be besties, but when you do hang, you feel like a million bucks.

    8. Iceberg Lettuce

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    Go ahead, TELL me about how iceberg lettuce is lame and tasteless and "it's all water." I don't care and I will laugh in your face as I eat a gosh dang delicious wedge salad covered in blue cheese dressing and bacon bits.

    7. Red Cabbage

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    Look at that purple! That is a purple of deep strength and also joy. You add a few shreds of this to a salad and it's like BOOM, INSTANT FIESTA.

    6. Mâche (a.k.a. Lamb's Lettuce)

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    Ooh la la! So French! So soft and delicious!

    5. Romaine Lettuce

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    Romaine is firm yet delicate, infinitely mutable, and great in all dressings. It is truly the Cate Blanchett of lettuces.

    4. Watercress

    Getty Images/iStockphoto Frans Rombout

    Spicy, sassy, and just a little WiLd. The salad equivalent of taking off your gross hiking boots and dunking your feet into an ice-cold mountain stream.

    3. Butter Lettuce (a.k.a. Boston Lettuce)

    Getty Images/iStockphoto Noppharat05081977

    It's so GREEN and TENDER and refined! A lettuce for the luxury lifestyle.

    2. Tuscan Kale

    Getty Images/iStockphoto dinoforlena

    Leave that curly stuff for when you have time to cook the heck out of it; this is the kind of kale you should be making salads with. And no, you don't have to frickin' MASSAGE it, you just have to cut it into skinny little ribbons (a.k.a "chiffonade" ) and then put dressing on. The normal way.

    1. Arugula

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    Arugula is fabulous because it has a secret superhero name ("rocket"!) and because it's spicy enough to be interesting and tender but NOT slimy and it gets along with literally all other vegetables. More like aRULEgula.