Butter Lettuce Salad Recipe
Grab the recipe for this super simple Butter Lettuce Salad, the perfect side salad for any main course! It’s made with tender butter lettuce, tossed with a honey Dijon vinaigrette, topped with fresh veggies and soft boiled eggs! It’s the ultimate Easter green salad! The salad is beautiful and the flavors are exquisite.
Butter lettuce, as its name suggests, is so tender that it melts in your mouth like butter. It’s so tender! This simple salad is composed of tender butter lettuce leaves, radicchio, and fresh sliced veggies. It’s a feast for the eyes and the tastebuds. This lettuce is also popular in chicken lettuce wraps!
For Easter, serve this Butter Leaf Lettuce Salad recipe with Honey Dijon Dressing recipe with your other favorite side dishes, like mashed potatoes, green beans, and fruit salad! Make our easy Perfect Soft Boiled Egg Recipe. I love a soft-boiled egg for this salad, rather than hard-cooked eggs! They can be dry and bland, where these eggs are soft and tender. Also, you could easily add chicken, salmon, or steak to this salad for a main dish!
What exactly is butter lettuce?
We used to grow butter lettuce in our garden and it was my favorite. Butter lettuce is known for loose, round-shaped heads of tender and sweet leaves lettuce leaves. If you haven’t made a salad with butter lettuce, you are in for a real treat.
All varieties of butterhead lettuces have smooth, loosely-coiled leaves that are often sold with the roots still attached. This preserves the freshness of the lettuce head. There are varies types that include Bibb lettuce and Boston lettuce.
What goes in a butter lettuce salad?
- Butter leaf lettuce (buy the whole head)
- Radicchio
- Soft boiled eggs
- Other veggies: Cherry tomatoes, corn, radishes, cucumbers, carrots
- Herbs: Fresh chives
- Dresing: Make your own dressing (recipe below) or buy our favorite Dijon Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
How to cut butter lettuce
Do this: As close to the core as possible, spin the lettuce to release the leaves. If the core does not pull out immediately, you can use a knife. And then slice away any remaining attached leaves. Super easy!
How do you wash butter leaf lettuce?
- Handle the leaves gently when washing them.
- Dry well with a salad spinner or shake gently in a clean kitchen towel. Patting too hard can squish the lettuce and make it wilty.
- To avoid crushing the leaves, tear large ones individually instead of cutting the heads.
How do you make the salad?
Soft boil the eggs:
- Bring a pot of water to boil; carefully lower the eggs into the water ( use a slotted spoon), and cook the eggs for 6-7 minutes.
- Transfer the eggs to an ice bath (using slotted spoon) to stop the cooking process and make peeling easier.
- When peeling, always peel while running under cold water and you will have beautiful eggs!
Assemble the salad:
- Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing until emulsified—refrigerate until serving.
- Arrange the lettuce on a large platter or place in a large salad bowl. Top with chopped radicchio, soft cooked eggs (cut in half), cherry tomatoes, cooked corn, radishes, cucumber, and carrots.
- Add fresh chopped chives for garnish.
- Drizzle the salad with the dressing and serve!
Sandy’s tips and substitutions:
- Butter lettuce is also called Boston or bibb lettuce. It has large, loose leaves and is a dark green color. Having grown this kind of lettuce in our garden for years, it can go to seed quickly.
- Lettuce tip: A sweet or bitter smell means sweet or bitter flavor. Buying in the grocery store, you are pretty sure to always be buying sweet buttery lettuce!
- Make your own dressing or you can buy it at the store. We love the brands in the recipe.
- If you are not a fan of soft-cooked eggs, go ahead and use hard-cooked. They will just be a little dryer.
- Use this recipe with leftover Easter eggs!
Serving
- Sometimes I even add homemade croutons for a satisfying crunch.
- You can replace the butter leaf with romaine lettuce.
- This salad can be served along side any meal or you can enjoy it for a light lunch. We love it with our Leek and Potato Soup with Ham.
- Serve with ham for Easter, or our Whole Roasted Buttermilk Chicken recipe!
It is especially delicious during the spring and summer months. It’s SO fresh!
More recipes with butter leaf lettuce that you may enjoy:
Get the Recipe:
Butter Lettuce Salad Recipe
Ingredients
Salad
- 2 head butter leaf lettuce, or 2 small
- 1 small head radicchio, roughy shaven or chopped
- 2-3 soft boiled eggs, halved
- ½ cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- ½ cup fresh corn, boiled, kernels removed
- 1-2 radishes, finely sliced with mandolin
- ¼ English cucumber
- 2 medium carrots, finely sliced
- ¼ cup chopped chives
- Dijon lemon vinaigrette, use if you don't make homemade recipe below
Honey Dijon Dressing
- ½ T Dijon mustard
- 1 ½ T sherry vinegar
- ½ c olive oil
- 1 T honey
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Soft-boil the eggs:
- Bring a pot of water to a gentle boil, and carefully lower eggs into the water (I use a slotted spoon), and cook for 6-7 minutes. Then, transfer the eggs to an ice bath to stop the cooking process and make peeling easier. When peeling, always peel while running under cold water and you will have beautiful eggs! Allow to cool before adding to the salad.
Prepare the dressing:
- Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing until emulsified—refrigerate until serving.
Make the salad:
- Arrange the lettuce on a large platter or place in a large salad bowl. Top with chopped radicchio, soft cooked eggs (cut in half), cherry tomatoes, cooked corn, radishes, cucumber, and carrots.
- Add fresh chopped chives for garnish.
Notes
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
I love this recipe, but your signature dishes are your charcuterie boards! They are the first reason I come to your website. So keep them coming:)
You are one of my favorite recipe sources. Love this one. Please do less of the charcuterie boards & more of this.
We try to have a mix of recipes here on RE, for simple recipes, and also entertaining ideas. Thanks you for your kind words!