The ultimate weeknight salad—hearty, easy to make, and full of flavor. This butter lettuce salad was born out of convenience and the desire for a meal that’s packed with veggies. Tender butter lettuce leaves gets topped with creamy fingerling potatoes, crisp baby cukes, cherry tomatoes, perfectly cooked eggs, and a healthy oh-so herby ranch dressing. 

large white platter filled with butter lettuce, blanched green beans, fingerling potatoes, halved cherry tomatoes, mini cucumbers, hard boiled eggs and a creamy ranch dressing

Ingredients in this Butter Lettuce Salad

Lots of veggies, that’s what!

  • Fingerling potatoes, you can also use baby golds.
  • Green beans, haricot verts are also delicious here.
  • Medium-boiled eggs, cook for 6 minutes to get that soft, jammy yolk. Cook one minute longer for the medium-set yolk as shown here.
  • Butter lettuce, can be found labeled as bibb or Boston lettuce.
  • Cocktail cucumbers, a little smaller than mini cucumbers. Find them packaged in cardboard or styrofoam containers wrapped in plastic. They usually come in packs of 6–10 cucumbers.
  • Cherry tomatoes, I love using a mix of yellow and red. 
  • Healthy Dill Ranch Dressing
  • Fresh dill, chives, flaky sea salt and cracked black pepper—for finishing the salad. 

How to Make Butter Lettuce Salad

This salad comes together very easily—but there’s a specific order that should be followed to use your time efficiently.

  1. Start cooking the potatoes right away. They take about 20 minutes to cook. During that time you can prep the remaining ingredients and make the Dill Ranch Dressing.
  2. Once the potatoes are cooked, remove them from the simmering water and pop the green beans in the simmering water to cook until crisp-tender. 
  3. Transfer the cooked green beans to an ice water bath (this quickly stops the cooking). Add the eggs to the simmering water and cook 7 minutes.
  4. Assemble! Arrange the butter lettuce over a large platter then pile on all the veggies. Nestle the eggs into the veggies and drizzle with the dressing. 
salad featuring green beans and potatoes dressing with ranch dressing

What is Butter Lettuce?

Also known as butterhead lettuce, butter lettuce is one of two types of head lettuce (the second variety is crisphead lettuce). Two of the most common butterhead varietals are Boston and Bibb.

Butter lettuce has small round leaves that loosely form a head of lettuce. The outer leaves tend to be pale green, while the small inner leaves are pale yellow-green.

The leaves are soft and buttery and should be washed and handled gently. I don’t recommend using a salad spinner here—instead rinse in cold water and arrange the leaves over a clean kitchen towel to dry.

Tender butter lettuce is great in salads, simply served with herbs and a vinaigrette, or on sandwiches.

Time Saving Tip

If you want to get dinner on the table even faster, use two pans instead of one to cook the potatoes, green beans and eggs. While the potatoes cook in the sauté pan, cook the green beans and eggs in a large saucepan. It’ll be an extra pan to clean, but will cut about 10 minutes off of the total cook time. 

Make it a Full Meal

The eggs make for a hearty and filling salad. But if you’re serving four people I recommend adding some additional protein. I love serving this with a couple of cans of my favorite smoked trout, Fishwife, or my go-to pan-seared salmon. These Crispy Baked Chicken Cutlets would also be fabulous (and so good dipped in the Dill Ranch). 

large white platter filled with butter lettuce, blanched green beans, fingerling potatoes, halved cherry tomatoes, mini cucumbers, hard boiled eggs and a creamy ranch dressing

Variations:

  • Add large peels of Parmesan cheese to the salad.
  • For a briny addition, add some capers or green olives (I love castelvetrano olives in this salad).
  • Add canned smoked trout to the salad for more protein and flavor.
  • For added crunch, top the salad with craggy croutons/breadcrumbs.
  • Like your dressings super tangy? Serve this salad with a lemon wedge or squeeze some lemon juice right over the salad.

Did you make this Butter Lettuce Salad?! Let me know how it went—leave a comment and star-rating in the comments below. And if you snapped a pic, share it on IG and tag me @zestfulkitchen. I love seeing what you make!

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large white platter filled with butter lettuce, blanched green beans, fingerling potatoes, halved cherry tomatoes, mini cucumbers, hard boiled eggs and a creamy ranch dressing

Butter Lettuce Salad with Veggies & Dill Ranch

  • Author: Lauren Grant
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 24 servings 1x
  • Category: Salad
  • Method: Stove top
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Gluten Free

Description

A veggie-full salad that will satisfy! Tender butter lettuce gets topped with creamy fingerling potatoes, crunchy cucumbers and green beans, tomatoes and of course the creamy Dill Ranch Dressing. 


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 pound fingerling potatoes, rinsed
  • Extra-virgin olive oil
  • 12 ounces green beans, rinsed and trimmed 
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 head butter lettuce 
  • 6 cocktail cucumbers, or mini cucumbers, halved lengthwise*
  • ½ pint cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 recipe Healthy Dill Ranch Dressing
  • Fresh dill & sliced chives for serving 
  • Flaky sea salt, cracked black pepper for serving 

Instructions

  1. Add potatoes to a large sauté pan and cover with 2 inches of cold water. Place pan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil; season with 2 teaspoons salt, reduce heat to medium and simmer until potatoes are fork-tender, about 20 minutes. Using a spider or slotted spoon,transfer potatoes to a large bowl; toss with a splash of oil and set aside.
  2. Add green beans to simmering water, adding additional water as needed, and cook until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with ice water. Using a spider or slotted spoon, transfer green beans to ice water bath and set aside. 
  3. Reduce heat to low, and using a spider or slotted spoon, gently lower eggs into water. Bring water back up to a boil and cook eggs 7 minutes. Using a spider or slotted spoon transfer eggs to ice water bath; let cool completely.
  4. Drain green beans and eggs; pat green beans dry. 
  5. Arrange lettuce leaves on a large platter. Arrange potatoes, green beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes over lettuce. Peel and halve eggs; arrange on platter, nestling into veggies. 
  6. Drizzle Dill Ranch Dressing over salad, sprinkle with fresh dill, chives, salt and pepper.


Notes

Prep time: I intentionally list prep time as 5 minutes. If you start the potatoes right away, everything else can be prepped while those cook. 

Cucumbers: you can also use half an english cucumber halved lengthwise and thinly sliced. 

It’s important to use a sauté pan here, not a skillet. Sauté pans feature tall straight sides, while skillets feature angled sides. If you do not have a sauté pan, use a large saucepan or pot. 

Servings: This salad will serve 4 as a side dish, or 2 as a large entrée salad. Make it a meal for 4 people by serving with a couple cans of smoked trout (I love Fishwife). You can also serve with my go-to pan-seared salmon or crispy chicken cutlets. 

Keywords: butter lettuce salad

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About The Author

Lauren Grant is a professional culinary food scientist, food writer, recipe developer, and food photographer. Lauren is a previous magazine editor and test kitchen developer and has had work published in major national publications including Diabetic Living Magazine, Midwest Living Magazine, Cuisine at Home Magazine, EatingWell.com, AmericasTestKitchen.com, and more.

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