Lettuce

Lettuce is a cooked food made from Waterweed, a crop that grows in warm, sandy, and colder variants of its biome depending on the specific form. It is one of the main ingredients used to make high-end meals, and it is also the direct product of Waterweed harvests before cooking.

Lettuce is produced in the Gas Range from Waterweed in three recipes: Mushroom Wrap, Frost Burger, and Mushroom Quiche. The recipes yield 1600 kcal, 400 kcal, and 400 kcal of food energy respectively, so the crop is most valuable when converted into higher-tier meals rather than eaten as a raw ingredient. Since Duplicants consume 1000 kcal/day by default, Waterweed can support a substantial amount of cooked food if you keep a steady supply chain running.

A Waterweed plant has a domestic growth requirement of 5 kg/cycle of Salt Water irrigation, so its food output is tightly tied to Salt Water availability. Salt Water is naturally found in abundance in the Tide Pool Biome, can be produced periodically by a Salt Water Geyser, and can also be harvested from certain space POIs in Spaced Out!. It can also be processed into other resources through desalination, boiling, or freezing, but for Lettuce production its role is primarily as fertilizer. Because temperature is transferred only partially from resources into buildings, the water source and farming setup can be managed separately from the cooking area.

Practical use notes:

• One growth cycle of Waterweed can support 12 Frost Burger orders or 3 Mushroom Wraps.
• If a colony relies only on Frost Burgers, it needs about 0.166 domestic or 0.666 wild Waterweed plants per Duplicant to supply the Lettuce.
• If a colony relies only on Mushroom Wraps, it needs about 0.833 domestic or 3.333 wild Waterweed plants per Duplicant to supply the Lettuce.
• Wild Waterweed is much less efficient than domestic Waterweed, so farming it domestically is the better option when Salt Water access is available.

Lettuce is best treated as part of a cooking chain rather than a standalone crop: secure Salt Water, grow Waterweed consistently, and route the harvest into the Gas Range to turn it into high-value meals.