Asian Butter Lettuce and Avocado Salad

Asian Butter Lettuce and Avocado Salad is an amazingly flavourful salad that tastes great any time of year! Composed of tender butter lettuce leaves, avocado, snow peas, cucumber and a Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette that’s bursting with flavours of ginger, sesame, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sugar, this Asian lettuce salad is a feast for the eyes and the palate.

Tender crisp, refreshing, tangy, sweet and zippy, this gorgeous salad is all of the things and hits all of the spots. It is the perfect addition to your collection of spring and summer salads. And the best part is that you can make it in less than 20 minutes from start to finish!

Butter lettuce is one of those often-overlooked and under rater ingredients that deserve some spotlight. It even sounds luxurious because of its name butter lettuce and you find yourself wondering what to do with it, today I have got the perfect simple green salad recipe for you that features this beautiful lettuce.

Like my Easy Watercress and Apple Salad , Vegan Caesar Salad with Homemade Croutons ,the is one of those green salads that is bursting with crunchy, green vegetables that celebrate the season. Finish it off with toasted sesame seeds and fresh chives , and you have a meal-worthy yet light salad recipe that is sure to please.

What is Butter Lettuce?

“Butter lettuce”—also known as Boston or Bibb lettuce, and traditionally in the UK as “round lettuce“. A butterhead lettuce can be recognised by its soft leaves which are a loose arrangement of leaves, rather like the petals of an old English rose. Often the centre has a much crisper head but nothing as crisp as iceberg or the average Cos lettuce.

The leaves have lots of taste to them and overall are sweet in flavour, with a tender texture. Any of the lettuces in this family will be delicate with a little sweetly buttery flavour. The delicate, rich sweetness is why it makes for a perfect complement to all of the sharp, savoury things we toss it with to make a delectable salad. No other salad green holds on to salad dressing quite like butter lettuce.

One key advantage of butterhead lettuces is their ability to withstand cold temperatures. Several varieties can be planted in the autumn for harvest in spring much earlier than most other lettuce varieties. There are many old varieties still available although in the 1950s the butterhead lettuce (and to some degree the Cos) was overshadowed almost completely by the ubiquitous Iceberg type lettuces. In the 90s though, the butterhead lettuce started the comeback because of its superior taste, appearance and nutritional value. Not only is butter lettuce tasty but they are easier to grow and faster to mature compared to Cos and Iceberg types.

What’s in this Asian Butter Lettuce and Avocado Salad

• Butter Lettuce – Key ingredient of this salad which gives this salad a delicate, rich sweetness. The tender, buttery texture goes well with the rest of the ingredients.
• Avocado – The best quality avocados are really what will make this recipe shine. A nice ripe avocado, not a mushy or firm texture and a well rounded flavor.
• Snow-peas – It is often called mangetout (“eat-all”). Mildly sweet, earthy and crunchy flavour, goes well with the butter lettuce.
• Cucumber – I found Persian cucumbers work best . They’re smaller in diameter, extra-crisp, and less seedy and watery.
• Fresh Chives – Chives have a unique, spicy flavour that’s somewhere between the taste of garlic and the taste of onions. Their pungent flavour is best enjoyed when chives are taken straight from the garden.

Asian Sesame Dressing

A good salad dressing is really what brings ‘life’ to a salad. Homemade dressings taste thousand times better than the store-bought ones. Making your own dressing from scratch might sound like extra work. But it really only takes 5 minutes and has so much more flavour than store bought! It’s made from simple pantry staples, comes together in minutes, and stores well in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Ingredients You’ll Need for the Sesame Dressing

• Sunflower Oil – A healthy and neutral oil. I opt for extra-virgin olive oil for all of my vinaigrette recipes but feel asian dressings taste better with sunflower or peanut oil.
• Rice vinegar – I used ClearSpring Organic rice vinegar in this recipe. This vinegar provides a stimulating contrast of flavour that brings almost any food to life.
• Toasted Sesame oil – This is what gives the flavour to this dressing. If you don’t have access to toasted sesame oil, use plain sesame oil, you might need to add a little extra as its less flavourful than toasted sesame oil.
• Brown Sugar or Brown honey – A little sweetness is needed to tame the tanginess.
• Light Soy sauce – Brings a savoury twist to this vinaigrette.
• Fresh Ginger – The earthy spiciness of fresh root ginger adds another flavour dimension to this dressing.

Helpful Tips and Tricks to Make this Asian Butter Lettuce and Avocado Salad

1. Lettuce – Of course, the butter lettuce is best for this salad if you can find . Petal-like butter lettuce leaves are so gorgeous, I like to leave them whole and serve this as a knife-and-fork salad. You can chop them or substitute any tender, crunchy, juicy lettuces like baby cos/ or iceberg lettuce.
2. Cucumber – I found Persian cucumbers work the best. They’re smaller in diameter, extra-crisp, and less seedy and watery than regular old cucumbers. If you can’t find them, opt for English cucumbers, which are similar in texture.
3. Storage – This dressing will keep for 2 weeks in the fridge. If you do not add the fresh ginger it can keep up to a month in the fridge. As there are no fresh ingredients.
4. Vegan – to make the salad vegan use tamari soy sauce instead of light soy sauce and brown sugar instead of honey.

Looking for more Salad Recipe? Here are Few of my Favourites

1. Baby Spinach Salad with Sesame Dressing
2. Vegan Pineapple Ceviche with Citrus
3. Quinoa Corn Salad with Avocado Dressing
4. Crispy Lettuce and Parmesan Salad

If you tried this recipe or any other recipe on our blog let us know how liked it by leaving a comment/rating below! Be sure to follow along on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook for even more amazing recipes!!

Asian Butter Lettuce and Avocado Salad

Serves: 4 Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cooking Time: 1 Minute 1 Minute

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Rating: 5.0/5

( 4 voted )

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Ingredients

For the Salad:

•  ¾ cup snow peas, washed 
• ½ cup frozen edamame beans, thawed
• 1 small Persian cucumber, thinly sliced
• 1 head butter lettuce, washed 
• 1 avocado, peeled & stoned 
• 1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

For Ginger Sesame Dressing:

• 2 tbsp Organic Japanese Shoyu Soya Sauce
• 2 tbsp Organic Japanese Rice Vinegar
• 1.5 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1.5 tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 2 tsp grated ginger
• 1.5 tsp brown sugar 
• salt and white pepper to taste

method

1. Bring a small saucepan of water to a boil and blanch the snow peas for just a minute, refresh then in ice cold water. Drain and keep aside. 
2. Slice the cucumber into very thin rounds, using a mandolin.
3. Rinse your butter lettuce leaves thoroughly. All of those nooks and crannies that are so good for holding onto salad dressing are also pretty good at holding onto dirt and grit, so before you do anything else, give each leaf of lettuce a good rinse with cold water.
4. In small bowl, or mason jar  whisk together ingredients for the dressing, set aside.
5. Arrange butter lettuce leaves on a large platter, top with snow peas, edamame beans, cucumber, avocado and sprinkle with chives and sesame seeds.
6. Drizzle with dressing right before serving and enjoy!

Did You Make This Recipe?

If you did, take a picture and tag me on Instagram at @poetryofspices!