Food

Butter Lettuce Salad With Cherries & Goat Cheese

In our view, the best salads combine fresh greens with a mix of flavors and textures: sweet, creamy, nutty, salty. And this butter lettuce salad with cherries and goat cheese hits every delicious note.

A fresh salad with prosciutto, cherries, almonds, and greens is served in a white bowl on a wooden chair.

Butter Lettuce Salad with Cherries & Goat Cheese

Photo Credit: Michael Piazza

In our view, the best salads combine fresh greens with a mix of flavors and textures: sweet, creamy, nutty, salty. It’s always a formula for success, and this salad hits every delicious note. Plus, it’s absolutely beautiful.

Yield

4 servings

Total Time

25 minutes minutes

Hands-on Time

25 minutes minutes


For the vinaigrette:

Ingredients

1 teaspoon honey mustard
1 small shallot, minced
1 small garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh tarragon
5 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions

Make the dressing: In a bowl, combine the mustard, shallot, garlic, salt, and pepper. Stir in the red-wine vinegar and tarragon. Add the oil in a thin stream, whisking continuously to emulsify; set aside.

For the salad:

Ingredients

1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 small fennel bulb
4 radishes
1 head butter lettuce (also known as Boston or Bibb)
8 small slices prosciutto
4 ounces fresh goat cheese (chevre), crumbled
24 cherries, pitted and halved
1 tablespoon finely chopped chives

Instructions

Make the salad: Add the almonds to a frying pan over medium-low heat and cook until golden in color, 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool; set aside. Using a sharp knife or, preferably, a mandoline, slice the fennel bulb and radishes very thinly. Set aside.

Take four deep soup bowls and start by making a bed of lettuce in each. Add the fennel and radish slices. Add two slices of prosciutto to each, and the crumbled goat cheese. Add the cherries and drizzle with the dressing, to taste. Top with chopped almonds and chives. Toss gently and serve.

Beatrice Peltre

More by Beatrice Peltre

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