Butter Lettuce Salad with Parmesan Dressing

February 19, 2026

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This recent butter lettuce salad contains a creamy Parmesan dressing, chives, and crunchy breadcrumbs. It’s a sublime 15-minute aspect for weeknight dinners or entertaining!

There’s one thing about these heads of butter lettuce on the retailer or spring farmer’s market: the brilliant inexperienced at all times seems so engaging! I’m a kind of individuals who can’t resist shopping for them, even when I don’t have a plan but. So right here’s a easy recipe I created to make it style superb: my butter lettuce salad!

Coating these delicate lettuce leaves in a creamy Parmesan Peppercorn dressing and topping with Parmesan shavings and a sprinkle of crunchy breadcrumbs makes them style completely irresistible. This salad recipe goes with nearly every thing, from rooster to pasta!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

It’s prepared in quarter-hour with no cooking required.
The dressing is creamy however mild: the Parmesan dressing makes use of Greek yogurt as an alternative of bitter cream
It’s versatile to pair with many meals: It really works with an off-the-cuff weeknight pasta to a spring feast unfold, and you may high it with protein to make it a meal

Substances You’ll Want

Right here’s what you’ll must whip up a fast salad with this tasty lettuce:

For the Salad

Butter lettuce (Bibb or Boston lettuce): One of these lettuce has a comfortable, delicate texture and gentle taste. Search for heads with the roots nonetheless connected at farmers markets or grocery shops; they keep brisker longer. Bibb lettuce is barely smaller; Boston lettuce is a bit bigger and looser. Each sorts work nicely right here! See my Fast Information to Butter Lettuce for extra.
Shallots: Shallots have a milder, sweeter taste than uncooked onion, and I like utilizing them in salads for the mild savory taste.
Cherry tomatoes or radishes: A handful of both convey a pleasant coloration distinction: use radishes in spring and tomatoes in summer season.
Contemporary chives: These add a fragile oniony word and a pop of coloration. Don’t skip them!
Italian panko: It is a enjoyable manner so as to add a crunch all through, a substitute for the basic croutons.
Parmesan shavings: Provides a salty pop of taste.

For the Dressing

This Parmesan Peppercorn Dressing is good for a butter lettuce salad: it’s simply mild sufficient in texture to coat the fragile leaves however doesn’t overwhelm them. Right here’s what you’ll want:

Mayonnaise and Greek yogurt: The mix of mayo and Greek yogurt retains issues mild however luscious sufficient to cling to every leaf.
Parmesan cheese: Provides savory, salty depth.
Crimson wine vinegar: Brightens every thing up.
Dijon mustard: Provides a delicate savory sharpness
Garlic powder: Extra mellow than recent garlic, and retains the dressing balanced. (You possibly can substitute 1 small minced garlic clove if desired).
Salt and freshly floor black pepper: Seasons the dressing completely.

Professional Tip: For meal prep, make a double batch of the dressing and retailer it in a jar within the fridge. It retains for as much as 1 week and is nice over a Mediterranean Salad or Italian Salad.

Find out how to Make Butter Lettuce Salad

Listed below are a number of ideas for the right way to make this salad! In the event you’re able to get began, you possibly can bounce to the recipe beneath for portions.

Wash and dry the lettuce utilizing a salad spinner. Drying the lettuce is essential, since if the leaves are moist the dressing slides off.
Prep the toppings. Thinly slice the shallots and chives, and slice the cherry tomatoes or radishes.
Make the Parmesan dressing. Whisk collectively the mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, Parmesan cheese, pink wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic powder, kosher salt, black pepper, and water in a bowl till easy and creamy.
Assemble the salad. Layer the elements on a platter or particular person plates, then high with the dressing. Since leftovers don’t work nicely when the dressing is utilized, I often like dressing particular person salads as an alternative of including dressing to a whole bowl.

Variations & Easy Swaps

No Italian panko: Use plain panko as an alternative. Toasted pine nuts or slivered almonds additionally make a scrumptious, naturally gluten-free swap for crunch.
Make it vegan. Swap the Parmesan dressing for a Vegan Ranch, a Vegan Caesar Dressing, or this inexperienced Cilantro Sauce.
Add shaved fennel. Skinny slices of fennel so as to add a light anise word and further crunch.
Swap the veggies. Halved sugar snap peas work nicely with the radishes to make a spring salad.
Make it lemon-forward. Substitute lemon juice for the pink wine vinegar within the dressing and sprinkle lemon zest over the salad.
Add protein. High with sliced grilled rooster (like in my Grilled Hen Salad), baked salmon, sauteed shrimp, or a soft-boiled egg to show it right into a meal.

Serving Concepts

This butter lettuce salad works for thus many events:

Spring dinner events and Easter: It seems gorgeous on a big platter
Weeknight pasta or pizza nights: It’s a pleasant recent distinction with one thing like lemon ricotta pasta or Margherita pizza
With grilled salmon or roast rooster: That is the right match for a rooster dinner or one in every of these salmon recipes
Alongside soups: Add it alongside one in every of my favourite wholesome soups

Storing Leftovers

This salad is greatest eaten the identical day: the butter lettuce leaves are so delicate that they wilt underneath the burden of the dressing. Because of this, I prefer to make particular person plates of this salad and use solely sufficient dressing for every serving.

Retailer leftover butter lettuce for as much as 2 days wrapped in paper towels, and the dressing shops refrigerated as much as 1 week.

Dietary Notes

This butter lettuce salad recipe is vegetarian. For gluten-free, use gluten-free panko. For vegan, use Cilantro Sauce, Vegan Ranch or Vegan Caesar Dressing.

Ceaselessly Requested Questions

Are you able to eat butter lettuce uncooked?

Uncooked is one of the simplest ways to get pleasure from it. Butter lettuce leaves have a comfortable, tender texture and a gentle, barely candy taste that makes them perfect for uncooked salads. Cooking would destroy it solely.

Is butter lettuce wholesome?

Butter lettuce is a nutrient-dense, low-calorie inexperienced. It accommodates vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, and calcium, and no saturated fats or ldl cholesterol (supply). When paired with a Greek yogurt-based dressing, it makes a balanced aspect dish.

How do you wash and retailer butter lettuce to maintain it recent?

To scrub butter lettuce, separate the leaves and swirl them in a bowl of chilly water, then elevate them out (let the grit to sink to the underside). The spin dry completely in a salad spinner.

To retailer, wrap the dry leaves loosely in paper towels and place them in an hermetic container within the fridge: they’ll retailer about 2 days. In case your butter lettuce has the roots connected, you can too retailer it root-side down in a jar with an inch of water within the fridge, loosely coated.

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