Our stunningly beautiful Lettuce Salad with Strawberries is unbelievably delicious. Full of sweet summer strawberries, soft butter lettuce and topped with a punchy lime vinaigrette. It makes a perfect summertime side for festive occasions.
Table of contents
About This Salad
The butter lettuce here is tender and soft which makes it a perfect base for the juicy and sweet strawberries perfumed beautifully with a lime, raspberry vinaigrette. An impressive side for summertime entertaining.
If our Lettuce Salad with Strawberries is not what you had in mind for your festive table then why not try our Sweet Potato Salad with Cranberries and Almonds or even our Persian Watermelon & Feta Salad they are both great alternatives.
Notes and Tips
- Make the dressing the day before and keep it in a glass jar in the fridge this will allow the oils and vinegar to absorb all the wonderful aromatic flavour from the lime leaves.
- Wash your strawberries first then hull and cut them as they have a tendency to become waterlogged.
- To avoid limp salad leaves dress the salad in a separate bowl, then transfer it to a serving platter leaving behind the excess dressing behind.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Butter Lettuce - added here as a base for its soft buttery flavour. You can replace it with baby spinach as it also has soft leaves or if your prefer some crispness then try romaine/cos lettuce.
- Strawberries - the star of this salad show and add fruity sweetness and bright colour. You can substitute with other berries such as raspberries or blueberries. You could also try red grapes or even kiwis for an all green salad version.
- Red Onion - here for its pungent flavour and bright magenta colour, try a green onion or French shallot instead or leave it out altogether if you prefer. (The girls are not a fan of onion so I also gave it a miss this time).
- Sunflower Seeds - for some crunch and mild nuttiness, you can try bright green pepitas, roasted almonds, walnuts or macadamias instead.
- Lime Rasberry Vinaigrette - all I can say is WOW this vinaigrette is amazing full of punch raspberry lime flavour. If you are in a hurry you can replace it with some balsamic glaze instead.
You Will Need
How to Make It (step-by-step)
1PREPARE INGREDIENTS
For this salad, we are going to start with the dressing to allow the flavours to develop for a much tastier salad. Add all the dressing ingredients to a glass jar and shake until emulsified.
Cut off the roots and core of your butter lettuce, then wash gently under cold running water. Then either gently pat the leaves dry with a towel or spin dry in a salad spinner. Gently tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces.
Wash your strawberries, hull them, then cut them in half.
Remove the papery skin from the onion, cut off the top and bottom, then dice finely. (The onion is optional and I did not add it in this version, the girls don't like it).
CUT OFF THE ROOT OF YOUR BUTTER LETTUCE 
WASH LEAVES UNDER COLD WATER THEN DRY 
WASH STRAWBERRIES HULL & SLICE STRAWBERRIES
2ASSEMBLE
Add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl, pour the dressing over the salad and season with salt and pepper, mix well, taste and adjust seasonings according to your taste.
Arrange in a salad platter and serve immediately, garnish with the extra strawberries and lime slices. Serve and enjoy.
TOSS SALAD WITH VINAIGRETTE TOSS WELL TO COMBINE ARRANGE IN A PLATTER & GARNISH
Serving Ideas
Our Lettuce Salad with Strawberries is a light and a refreshing summer salad with quite delicate so it would be best served with poultry or seafood. Perfect with an aromatic poached chicken breast or serve it with a Christmas Turkey as we did.
Common Questions (FAQs)
They are all soft lettuce varieties known as butter or butterhead that originated from the Mediterranean basin. Grown hydroponically and sold with the roots attached in plastic sleeves to preserve freshness.
Known for loose, round-shaped heads of tender, sweet leaves and mild flavour. All varieties of butterhead lettuces have smooth, loosely-coiled leaves.
Boston and Bibb lettuce (the two most popular) are hybrids from original butter lettuces. Boston's leaves are wider and lighter green than Bibb's. The smaller Bibb also has red varieties that are tastier and oh so pretty.
Soft lettuce varieties are best just before making up the salad as they are pretty delicate.
Strawberries should really be prepared on the day you plan on eating them as water will add moisture and lead to berry spoilage.
If you absolutely HAVE TO prepare them the day before make sure that they are completely dry and store them in a closed airtight container in the crisper section of your fridge.
You can definitely make up the dressing the day before, in fact, I recommend that you do as it will taste even better.
Dress the salad and toss just before serving.
Our Lettuce Salad with Strawberries is meant to be enjoyed on the day you make it.
You can discard the lettuce leaves and just store the strawberries, sunflower seeds and dressing to add to fresh greens the following day.
Alternatively, blitz the leftovers (without the lettuce) then add to some vanilla ice cream or Greek yoghurt or honey.
As with all of my leaf salads I like to use a salad spinner to completely remove the excess water after washing. This makes for a tastier salad as the vinaigrette has not been watered down.
Dairy-free; gluten-free; low-carb; paleo; vegan and vegetarian diets.
A few more strawberry salads to try..
Recipe Card
Equipment
- Salad Spinner
Ingredients
- 150 grams butter lettuce (1 small head of lettuce, approximately 5.3 ounces)
- 250 grams strawberries (1 punnet plus a few extra to garnish, approximately 8.8 ounces)
- 60 grams red onion, optional (half a red onion, approximately 2 ounces)
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds, toasted
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup lime juice
- 2 tbsps raspberry vinegar
- 2 kaffir lime leaves
- 1 tablespoon lime zest (approximately 2 limes)
- Sliced strawberries and sliced limes to garnish.
Instructions
- For this salad, we are going to start with the dressing to allow the flavours to develop for a much tastier salad. Add all the dressing ingredients to a glass jar and shake until emulsified.
- Cut off the roots and core of your butter lettuce, then wash gently under cold running water. Then either gently pat the leaves dry with a towel or spin dry in a salad spinner. Gently tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces.
- Wash your strawberries, hull them, then cut them in half.
- Remove the papery skin from the onion, cut off the top and bottom, then dice finely. (The onion is optional and I did not add in this version).
- Add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl, pour the dressing over the salad and season with salt and pepper, mix well, taste and adjust seasonings according to your taste.
- Arrange in a salad platter and serve immediately, garnish with the extra strawberries and lime slices. Serve and enjoy.
Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.
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