Butter Lettuce Salad with Asian Pears, Buttermilk–Blue Cheese Dressing, and Candied Walnuts Gluten-Free Recipe

Dairy free? Try a DF ranch dressing: skip the cheese, replace the buttermilk with soy or coconut milk, season the dressing with garlic and onion powders, more lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste, then stir in some fresh chopped chives.

Servings 6

Author Mitchell and Steven Rosenthal

Ingredients

FOR THE DRESSING:

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 pound crumbled blue cheese
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

FOR THE SALAD:

3 small heads butter lettuce
1 Asian pear halved, cored, and cut into matchsticks or thin slices
6 radishes trimmed and thinly sliced
3 ounces crumbled blue cheese
1 recipe Candied Walnuts (below)

Instructions

Make the dressing: In a bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, blue cheese, buttermilk, cream, and lemon juice until well blended. Season with salt and pepper.
Make the salad: Remove and save the larger outer leaves of the butter lettuce for another use. Remove, wash, and dry the medium leaves, keeping the small, tight, inner parts of the heads intact and rinsing and drying them. Halve the small, inner lettuce heads. Layer a few of the medium leaves on each of 6 salad plates. Top each with one of the halved inner lettuce heads. Drizzle with the dressing, garnish with pear matchsticks, radishes, blue cheese, and candied walnuts, and serve.