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.
Servings6
AuthorMitchell and Steven Rosenthal
Ingredients
FOR THE DRESSING:
1/2cupmayonnaise
1/4poundcrumbled blue cheese
1/4cupbuttermilk
2tablespoonsheavy cream
1tablespoonfreshly squeezed lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
FOR THE SALAD:
3small heads butter lettuce
1Asian pearhalved, cored, and cut into matchsticks or thin slices
6radishestrimmed and thinly sliced
3ouncescrumbled blue cheese
1recipe 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.