La Cuisine

wcfoodies:

Butter Lettuces and Radishes with Lemon-Poppy Yogurt Dressing & Green Onions
 
Kit and I were at the farmer’s market, waiting in a long line to pick up our Thanksgiving turkey. Normally, no one is more excited than me about root vegetables: come fall, I can’t get enough of parsnips, carrots, potatoes, and beets. I’ll eat them roasted, in soup, even steamed or boiled. As we waited, shivering slightly, in the turkey line, I craned my neck to see which farm stands had the best root vegetables. Amid the bins of dirt-smudged carrots, pale parsnips and turnips, dark-green kale and milky-green collards, one bin literally popped out. Its contents: airy, neon-green heads of butter lettuces and radishes as small and bright as rubies. It was like that first blade of grass peeking through the snow at the end of a long, cold winter. We came home from the market with a big, beautiful turkey and all the root vegetables we could carry, but my prize that day was a delicate head of butter lettuces and a bunch of those baby radishes.
 
This salad is really excellent: full of flavor, healthy, transportable, and very quick and easy to whip together. The yogurt-based dressing would also make a fantastic marinade or topping for chicken, fish, or roasted vegetables.
 

• 1 head of butter lettuces
• 6-8 small radishes, trimmed and cleaned
• 1 green onion, finely sliced
• The juice of 1 lemon
• 5 oz of Greek or strained-style yogurt (fat content is your preference)
• 1 ½ teaspoons poppyseeds
• 1 tablespoon good extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt & pepper to taste

 
Trim the butt of the lettuces and separate the leaves, discarding any brown ones. Immerse the lettuces in cold water and drain; repeat twice more, each time with fresh cold water, or until the water drains clean. Gently pat dry with a towel. With your hands, tear the butter lettuces into bite-sized pieces and arrange loosely on two plates.

In a small bowl, whisk together the yogurt, lemon juice, green onion, poppyseeds, salt, and pepper. Whisk the olive oil in in a steady drizzle. Taste and adjust.

Quarter the radishes. Sprinkle them over the butter lettuces. Drizzle the lettuces & radishes with the dressing. Top with an extra pinch of poppy seeds, a little more sea salt, and an extra drizzle of olive oil.

Serves two.