The Ultimate Grilled Summer Salad

When I picked up my second CSA of the summer and saw that there were 4 heads of lettuce included, I knew I was in for a lot of salad. But I also knew I didn't have to have the same boring salads you see everywhere. Since two of the heads were frisee, I made classic frisee salads for my girlfriend and myself (a favorite of hers: frisee with crispy lardons, a poached egg, and a nice tart vinaigrette). But for the other two heads (one green leaf and one red leaf), I decided to incorporate one of my favorite summer pastimes: grilling. That's right, you're going to grill the lettuce. Sounds crazy, maybe, but it's not. It's just delicious. You'll be surprised at how satisfying this salad is.

I added some pickled vegetables (feel free to substitute, depending on what you've got), and finished it off with an amazing buttermilk-herb dressing. You'll have enough dressing left over to keep dunking the vegetables you didn't pickle.

The Ultimate Grilled Summer Salad
No Ratings
Prep Time
20
minutes
Cook Time
10
minutes
Servings
0
servings
Ingredients
  • 2 heads lettuce (green leaf, red leaf, romaine, frisee, doesn't really matter)
  • 1/4 cup sliced pickled radish
  • 8 pickled garlic-scape tops (or other pickled vegetable of your choice)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3/4 cup buttermilk
  • 3/4 cup sour cream
  • 2 tablespoons chardonnay (or other white wine) vinegar
  • 1/3 cup parsley
  • 1/3 cup chives
  • 1 tablespoon garlic scapes
  • 2 tablespoons fresh oregano
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
Directions
  1. Heat a grill to high heat.
  2. Split lettuce heads in half; try to do it in a way that keeps as many leaves on each side as you can.
  3. Brush the split lettuce heads with olive oil and grill 2-3 minutes on each side.
  4. Whisk dressing ingredients together in a medium bowl.
  5. Top with pickled radishes and garlic scapes, then top with dressing (go easy on the dressing — you’ll likely use about half of it, and the rest is good for a week after that).
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