Variations on Butter Lettuce Salad with Rice Wine Vinaigrette

Butter lettuce is definitely my favorite lettuce, and buttercrunch is probably by favorite variety of the butter lettuce family.  As long as it isn’t a bitter crop, you pretty much can’t go wrong.  I have a couple standard salad dressing that I use for butter lettuce, and this is probably the one I make most frequently.  It is a light, nicely balanced dressing that doesn’t overpower the delicate lettuce leaves.  Definitely try to get the “seasoned” rice wine vinegar, otherwise it can be too biting and acrid. I tend to use a lighter vegetable or nut oil as I find the olive oil is a bit too heavy for this lettuce.

This salad is great just with just plain lettuce, but it can be nice to add a few extra ingredients.  Here are some of the combinations that I enjoy with this type of lettuce and dressing:

• Freshly grated parmesan (2-3 tablespoons)
• Toasted almonds (1/4 cup), toasted sesame (2 tablespoons) and crumbled bacon (2-4 tablespoons)
• Pear and toasted pecan (1/2 cup each)
• A huge pile of toasted hazelnuts (1 cup) and maybe a few minced shallots (1-2 tablespoons)
• Green apple and tomme de savoie cheese (1/2 cup of each) and may a few minced shallots
• Macadamia nut (1/2 cup), grapefruit segments (from 1 grapefruit), avocado slices (from 1 avocado)

Simple Butter Lettuce Salad
Serves 2-4 (depending on portion size)

1 head butter lettuce

Any desired additions

Dressing
1 tablespoon seasoned rice wine vinegar (i.e. Marukan with the orange label)
3 tablespoon oil of choice (canola, macadamia nut, olive etc)
2-3 smashed cloves of garlic
Pinch of sugar
Salt & pepper

Wash, spin dry and tear the lettuce into bite size pieces.  In a small bowl combine the salad dressing ingredients and beat with a fork. Toss the dressing and lettuce just before serving.  You can either arrange the optional additions on top or toss them together with the lettuce.