The Perfect Lettuce Salad

By ltrodrigu

The mix of bitter and sweet, tender and more substantial leaves is just right in this salad, so don’t overdo it with the oil and eclipse that beautiful balance of flavor and texture. About 2 teaspoons per plate should be sufficient.

Ingredients

• 1/2 head Rhazes or red Little Gem lettuce, core removed, leaves torn into 3-inch pieces
• 1/2 head frisée, torn into 2-inch pieces
• Handful of arugula, preferably Astro variety
• Handful of mizuna
• Handful of Ruby Streaks mustard greens
• Handful of scarlet or golden mustard frill
• Handful of pea shoots or fava greens
• Small handful of vegetable tops, such as carrot, beet, turnip, celery root, radish or fennel
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 large shallot, thinly sliced, rinsed under hot tap water for 1 minute and dried with paper towel
• 1/4 fennel bulb, thinly sliced into 3/4-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons chives, finely chopped
• Freshly ground white pepper
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Coarse sea salt

Details

Servings 4
Adapted from wsj.com

Preparation

Step 1

In a large, wide bowl, mix all greens, taking care not to bruise leaves.

Squeeze lemon juice over salad, dispersing juice evenly. Use your hands to divide salad evenly among 4 plates.

Garnish each salad with shallots, fennel, chives and a few grinds of pepper. Finish with a drizzle of oil and some sea salt.