Butter lettuce salad with mustard-shallot vinaigrette
Salads make fast and easy one-plate meals.
One of my favorite farmers’ market finds is organic butter lettuce. When I shop at farmer’s markets, I don't always know what I'm going to do with the fruits and veggies I bring home until there’s time to think about it around dinner time.
One of my favorite cookbooks includes one-plate salad meals and pairings of produce with dressings by well-known chef, Joyce Goldstein, called “Mediterranean Fresh.” She gave me permission to share some of her recipes on this site.
To go with my fresh butter lettuces, I chose a mustardy vinaigrette which was used to marinate warm toasted walnuts chunks straight out of the oven and to dress the lettuce. The addition of farm-fresh cucumber rounded out this excellent salad.
Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 2 heads of butter lettuce, washed, drained, and dried
- 2 cucumbers, peeled or not and sliced. (I peel the shiny and warty cucumbers but not English or Armenian cucumbers)
- 1 cup walnuts chopped into pieces large enough so you can still maneuver them with a fork.
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 4 tablespoons finely minced shallot
- 8 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Note: To make sure the lettuce is dry, I pull the string on the salad spinner at least 10 times. You would be surprised how much water you still get after 5 spins.
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Whisk the mustard, shallots, and red wine vinegar together in a small bowl.
- Whisk in the olive oil.
- Season to taste.
- Toast the walnuts on a baking sheet until they get brown and fragrant, 10-15 minutes.
- Toss the walnuts with some of the dressing and let them absorb the flavors.
- Toss the lettuce, cucumber and walnuts with the remaining dressing and serve.
Nutrition information (per serving)
- Calories: 310
- Total fat: 31 g
- Saturated fat: 4 g
- Trans fat: 0 g
- Cholesterol: 0 g
- Sodium: 158 mg
- Total carbohydrate: 7 g
- Dietary fiber: 3 g
- Protein: 3 g