Butterhead Lettuce Recipe of Simple Cuisine

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is a chef, food photographer, cookbook author and blogger.
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My simple butterhead lettuce recipe I present to you in this article. In the past, green lettuce, also called head lettuce, was the most popular everyday salad on our tables.

After the emergence of other varieties of lettuce, its popularity has declined somewhat. Too bright and colorful is the appearance of salad competitors. After all, the eye eats with you. Nevertheless, the green giant has always had its fan base. Currently, the simple leaf salad is celebrating a revival as an evergreen of German cuisine.

Wish you lots of fun and good luck!

1. Recipe Butterhead Lettuce

Butterhead Lettuce

Guidance from chef Thomas Sixt.

Servings 2
Calories 441
Total Time 25 Min.
Preparation Time 15 Min.
Cook Time 10 Min.

Chef Thomas Sixt shows you how to prepare Butterhead lettuce simply and traditionally with a vinegar-oil dressing in this article.

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butterhead Lettuce recipe image
butterhead Lettuce recipe picture arranged in a bowl

Ingredients

1 pc lettuce (Butterhead Lettuce)
100 ml white vine vinegar
2 tsp brown can sugar
1/4 tsp primal salt
4 Pinches black ground pepper
1 tsp Dijon mustard
100 ml cold water
100 ml Sunflower oil

Instruction

butterhead lettuce fresh
Butterhead Lettuce

Provide salad

Provide crisp fresh leaf lettuce in the kitchen.

butterhead Lettuce outer leaves
The outer leaves from the butterhead lettuce

Clean lettuce

Remove the outer leaves from the lettuce.

Clean butterhead lettuce outer leaves
Clean butterhead lettuce outer leaves

Pluck lettuce

Pluck light green and white leaf parts from outer leaves.

Lettuce leaf before picking
Lettuce leaf before picking

Prepare salad leaves

Remove the inner leaves and pluck them into bite-sized pieces, depending on the size of the leaves.

butterhead Lettuce inner leaves
butterhead Lettuce inner leaves

Prepare lettuce heart

Remove the small leaves towards the lettuce heart except for the innermost one.

Butterhead lettuce heart
Butterhead lettuce heart on cutting board

Clean lettuce heart

Cut lettuce heart, halve or cut into quarters.

Prepared plucked lettuce in the bowl
Prepared plucked lettuce in the bowl

Provide salad leaves

Place picked, prepared lettuce leaves in a bowl.

Quickly wash picked lettuce leaves
Quickly wash picked lettuce leaves

Wash lettuce

Briefly wash leaf lettuce with cold water.

Lettuce leaves in water
Lettuce leaves in cold water

Remove lettuce leaves

Remove lettuce leaves from the water with your hands.

Place washed, wet lettuce leaves in the salad spinner
Place washed, wet lettuce leaves in the salad spinner

Equip salad spinner

Place lettuce leaves in salad spinner.

Lettuce spin leaves
Lettuce leaves spin dry

Spin lettuce

Spin lettuce dry and then set aside for dressing.

Prepare dressing, add spices to the vinegar
Prepare dressing, add spices to the vinegar

Prepare vinegar stand

Put vinegar with spices in a bowl.

Prepare salad dressing: Add mustard to the vinegar
Prepare salad dressing: Add mustard to the vinegar

Supplement mustard

Add the mustard. The mustard is an optional ingredient. You can use tarragon mustard, medium mustard or Dijon mustard.

Stir mustard and ingredients into the dressing
Stir mustard and ingredients into the dressing

Stir spices

Whisk in spices and mustard until dissolved. Stir in water.

Add oil to the dressing
Stir the oil into the dressing

Supplement oil

Slowly stir in the oil and complete the salad dressing.

butterhead Lettuce recipe image
butterhead Lettuce recipe picture arranged in a bowl

Marinate salad and serve

Marinate the lettuce with the dressing and serve.

Enjoy your meal!

Video

2. Calories and Nutritional Values Butterhead Lettuce

3. Tips for Butterhead Lettuce and Dressing

Some tips about the proper preparation and preparation of leaf salads can be found below:

–> Wilted lettuce can be refreshed in cold water with ice cubes.
–> Plucked lettuce is better, cut lettuce quickly forms brown interfaces.
–> Always wash lettuce quickly so that the water-soluble vitamins are not lost.
–> Always spin dry lettuce after washing.
–> Only dry lettuce leaves can be marinated well with dressing.
–> Marinate lettuce leaves with dressing just before serving.
–> You can store lettuce leaves in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for two to three days.

leaf salads ice freshen
You can refresh wilted leaf lettuce in cold water with ice.

Tips around the dressing complement your knowledge:

–> A basic recipe for salad dressing: one part vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar and 4 parts oil.
–> Reducing oil is contemporary, saves calories and is more digestible.
–> Sweet vinegar like balsamic needs less to no sugar added.
–> Apple cider vinegar and honey are healthy dressing ingredients.
–> You can use a hand blender to mix the dressing.
–> Prepared dressing, stored in a bottle in the refrigerator, increases salad consumption.

Dressing rice noodle salad
The dressing, the marinade for a rice noodle salad

5. Lettuce History and Interesting Facts

The green head salad was my grandmother’s favorite. She always had the butterhead lettuce in the garden and as a child I was allowed to remove snails from the bed long before the harvest and water the lettuce in the evening in the Bavarian garden.

The harvesting and washing of lettuce always had something ritualistic: first the lettuce came whole in a rain barrel to wash off the soil. After that, the lettuce was washed in bowls in the garden and finally only then brought to the kitchen.

My grandmother never washed the salad in the sink. Basically, clean bowls were prepared and used.

Please pay attention to the cleanliness: Many a kitchen sink is a bacteria and germ-laden hotspot. Bowls are always better, if there is no other way, thoroughly clean and disinfect the sink beforehand.

My grandmother’s salad dressing was a simple vinegar oil dressing. Vinegar and spices was usually prepared for a long time before the salad preparation in a bowl. Salt and sugar could dissolve so well in the vinegar. Dressing from a packet did not exist at that time and she would never have used such a thing. Some sugar she often sprinkled on the salad at the end and this salad was really something special.

The salad heart was the highlight, it was awarded each time rotating alternately to a family member at the table. As herb addition to the leaf salad there was often lovage or parsley. This is a good tip for the summertime.

Organic lettuce is better than conventional lettuce and locally grown lettuce is a contribution to the reduction of CO2.

Packaged lettuce was often washed with chlorinated water to improve shelf life in the bag. Fresh lettuce is preferable to packaged industrial lettuce.

Leaf Salad in the Overview:

lettuce at a glance cooking school
Colorful leaf salads in the overview starting at 11 o’clock: frisée, lollo rosso, lollo bianco, lettuce, arugula, radicchio, radicchio Treviso, lamb’s lettuce, wild garlic.

4. More Salad Recipes Ideas

5. More Side Salad Ideas

Comments, Cooking Questions and Answers

4.97 from 811 ratings

Below you can write to me directly.
Please don’t forget the star rating on the recipe, 5 stars means you liked it!

  • Hi Chef Thomas,

    The spinning of lettuce after washing was not known to me.

    Frequently I have already been annoyed by watery lettuce.

    The instructions have explained it to me well.

    Thank you for the beautiful photos and the fine salad dressing.

    Love from Ella

    Reply

    • Hello Ella,

      thank you also for your honest and nice feedback!

      Best regards Thomas

      Reply