Butter Lettuce Salad with Apples and Fresh Herbs ~ Veggie Inspired

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This Butter Lettuce Salad is light, fresh, herby, crunchy, and downright delicious! I like to serve it with my dairy free hemp seed dressing for an extra punch of herby flavor. Great as a light lunch or a starter or side for a heartier dinner.

Two plates of butter lettuce salad with apples, radishes, herbs, and ranch.

Butter lettuce is tender and light, has a mild flavor, and is perfect for spring and summer salads. Paired with crunchy apples, crisp radishes, fresh herbs, and a creamy savory dressing, it’s texture and flavor perfection.

Table of Contents hide

1 Ingredients you need

2 How to make the recipe

3 Storage

4 Pro tips for success

5 FAQs

6 More vegan salad recipes

7 Butter Lettuce Salad

Ingredients you need

Recipe ingredients arrayed in individual bowls. — *Butter Lettuce Salad ingredients: butter lettuce, apple, radishes, green onions, nutritional yeast, fresh parsley, fresh dill, vegan ranch dressing*

Ingredient notes and substitutions

This salad is my version of a quick lunch dish I had in St. Louis in 2020. It was a simple salad, but the flavors and textures were just dynamite and it far exceeded my expectations. Most of the ingredients I’ve used are the same as in that tasty meal with just one or two changes to make it my own.

Lettuce ~ Butter lettuce refers to several varieties of delicate leaf lettuce, including Boston and Bibb. Although, it doesn’t taste buttery, as the name suggests, the leaves are tender and almost have a melt-in-your-mouth quality that is so appealing.

Green or red leaf lettuce would be good substitutions if you don’t have butter lettuce.

Apple ~ Use a nice crisp apple, like Envy, Empire, or Granny Smith. Sweet or tart is up to you. They both work with the complementing flavors in the salad.

Slice the apples as thin as possible so they don’t weigh down the delicate butter lettuce leaves.

Thinly sliced pears could also be used.

Radishes ~ I love the crisp spicy bite of radishes. Slice them as thin as possible.

Green onions ~ Green onions are mild and crunchy with a fresh flavor.

Diced raw red onion or quick pickled red onions would also be great options for this butter lettuce salad.

Nutritional yeast ~ Nooch, as it is often referred to, has a lovely savory, nutty flavor. If you don’t have it or don’t like it, you can leave it off, but personally I put it on nearly everything!

Herbs ~ I love dill and parsley. Cilantro, basil, or chives would all work if you prefer.

Fresh herbs are key in this recipe! Do not use dried herbs.

Dressing ~ I like to pair this salad with my herby Hemp Seed Dressing.

Vegan Ranch Dressing or Lemon Vinaigrette would be delicious, too. Or use your favorite store-bought vegan dressing.

How to make the recipe

Please scroll down to the recipe card for exact ingredient measurements and instructions.

Recipe ingredients chopped, sliced, prepped and ready to go into the salad.

Because of the delicate nature of the butter lettuce, this salad won’t keep well once all the ingredients are mixed together. Keep the ingredients separate and plate each serving as needed.

4 photo collage of assembling the lettuce, apples, radishes, and nutritional yeast.

For each serving, start with 2 cups of chopped or torn lettuce (1), add ¼ of the apple slices (2), 1 sliced radish (3), and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of nutritional yeast (4).

4 photo collage of assembling the green onions, fresh herbs, vegan ranch, and finished salad.

Add a sprinkling of sliced green onions (5) and fresh herbs (6).

Choose your dressing (7) and drizzle as much or as little as you like over the finished salad (8).

Finish with some fresh cracked pepper and a squeeze of fresh lemon, if desired.

Storage

If you don’t plan on eating all of the salad at once, keep the individual ingredients separate and store them in air-tight containers in the fridge. Wrap the lettuce in paper towels and store in a sealed plastic zip-top bag in the crisper drawer. It should keep for 4 to 5 days.

Overhead close up of the finished butter lettuce salad recipe.

Pro tips for success

~ Keep all ingredients separate until ready to serve.

~ Slice the apples and radishes as thinly as possible so as not to weigh down or overwhelm the delicate butter lettuce.

~ Use fresh herbs!

~ This recipe is gluten free, nut free, soy free, oil free, and vegan!

Plate of salad with apples and radishes drizzled with ranch dressing.

FAQs

Why is it called butter lettuce?

The word butter has more to do with the texture of the lettuce leaves than the flavor. In fact, it doesn’t taste of butter at all. The leaves are delicate and tender and have a melt-in-the-mouth quality.

What can you use butter lettuce for?

Obviously, this type of lettuce is great for a butter lettuce salad. It also makes great wraps, like for my Asian Lentil Burger Wraps or for any kind of tacos..

What makes a good salad?

In my opinion, the key to a good salad comes down to texture and flavor. A variety of textures, like crunchy, crisp, and creamy is important along with the leafy greens. Also, a variety of flavors, like sweet, tart, bitter, savory, herby, fresh, etc. Both flavor and texture are important for an interesting and delicious salad.
And, since we eat with our eyes first as they say, it’s important to keep it colorful, as well.

Tablescape with two bowls of salad surrounded by sliced radishes and lemon wedges.

More vegan salad recipes

I hope you love this recipe as much as we do! If you tried it, please use the rating system in the recipe card and leave a comment below with your feedback.

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For even more easy family recipes, be sure to check out my cookbook, The Meatless Monday Family Cookbook!