I adore a classic strawberry salad with poppy seed dressing. Over the years I’ve found I prefer a more sturdy and crunchy lettuce to the typical baby spinach. The version I’ve been perfecting here features butter lettuce, also known as Boston, Bibb, or butter crunch. I like the mild flavor and crisp texture, which is a delicious foil to sweet-tart strawberries. This is not a typical dressing–as one reader put it: “ordinarily poppy seed dressings with berries are cloying and one-note, but this blended shallot situation is what’s up.” Ready in 20 minutes. Make it a dinner salad with some sticky marinated and grilled tempeh on top.
This dressing has a savory and fresh edge that sets it apart. We keep some of the sweetness and poppy seeds in the dressing, but add fresh lemon juice, a blended shallot, and fresh mint. I blend the dressing in stages so that I get pretty little flecks of mint throughout. Once the poppy seeds are stirred in at the end, the sweet, tart, and cool qualities make for a wildly tasty combination with the strawberries and avocado. Don’t skip the extra fresh mint on top of the finished dish.
One thing about butter lettuce: it likes to be tossed gently and right before serving. Sometimes I can be in a rush, and I find that this lettuce in particular suffers (goes limp and has a “bruised” appearance) from a tossing that’s too quick and rough.
You can slice the strawberries up to 2 hours ahead of time for assembling this salad. Just keep them in a sealed container at room temperature for maximum juicy flavor. A perfect bite has sweet-tart strawberry, crunchy but still silky lettuce, bracing lemon, cool mint, lush avocado, and salty-nutty pistachios. Heaven on earth in the summertime.
Summer Fresh Strawberry Salad with Mint Poppy Seed Dressing
Ingredients
Dressing
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons champagne/white wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup/agave nectar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 small shallot, peeled
- ½ teaspoon vegan Worcestershire sauce
- sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup fresh mint leaves
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
Salad
- 8-10 oz butter lettuce (also known as Bibb, Boston or butter Crunch)
- 2 cups chopped strawberries
- ¼ cup mint leaves, roughly chopped
- ¼ cup shelled salted pistachios, chopped
- sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 large ripe avocado, peeled and diced
Equipment
- Blender
Notes
- You could top this salad with toasted sunflower seeds to keep it completely nut-free.
- Vegan Worcestershire sauce contains wheat. To make this gluten-free, simply substitute the same amount of Tamari.
- I used 3 small heads of butter lettuce here.
- If there’s a vegan feta that you love, a couple handfuls of it crumbled on top would be excellent!
Instructions
- Make the dressing. In an upright blender, combine the lemon juice, champagne vinegar, maple syrup, Dijon, shallot, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Blend on high until completely smooth, about 1 minute. Add the mint leaves and blend slowly until the mint appears finely minced in the dressing. Pour the dressing into a measuring cup/jar and stir in the poppy seeds. Set aside.
- Remove the cores of the butter lettuce and chop/tear into bite sized pieces. Place the lettuce in a large serving bowl. Add the strawberries, mint, and half of the pistachios. Season with salt and pepper and pour on half of the dressing. Gently toss to combine. Top the salad with avocado, chopped pistachios, and drizzle the remaining dressing (or as much as you’d like). Enjoy immediately.
Love this recipe with the balance of greens, nuts and fruit. The dressing is perfect, not cloyingly sweet like so many bottled types. I’m a bigger fan of arugula and spinach so I often substitute one of those in place of butter lettuce. This salad strawberry is now in frequent rotation for this spring & summer.
I made the salad plus extra dressing because I had a lot of mint in the garden. It’s a delicious salad but I really love the dressing which I used on other salads I made this weeks. I’ll definitely be making again.
Thanks so much for this review Barb! We are also overrun with mint in the garden currently haha.
-L
try it!
This was so good! I wanted to drink the salad dressing.
Like readers below, I also got this recipe right as my CSA gave us some yummy butter lettuce. I made the dressing as instructed but subbed some ripe alfalfa mango for the strawberries as my Whole Foods had them on sale and I couldn’t help myself.
I looked forward to eating the salad all day and it did not disappoint!
Your recipes are so well written that I even trust my husband to make them without me haha
I loooove the idea of doing this salad up with mango!! Thanks for this kind comment and review, Caroline! ;)
-L
This recipe dropped right as strawberries and butter lettuce showed up in my CSA (already had a ripe avocado on deck, miracle of miracles), so thank you for helping me manage my tender produce! I’d give this 6 stars if I could because ordinarily poppy seed dressings with berries are cloying and one-note, but this blended shallot situation is what’s up. Thanks for a timely recipe that is a long-term keeper. xo
Hi Deb!
Thanks for this comment and review. So glad that the strawberry salad was a timely success for you! :)
-L