Harvesting Leaf Lettuce & Salad Dressing Recipes
Reading Time: 5 minutes
Preparing and harvesting leaf lettuce greens is an easy and healthy choice. Create delicious salads with these homemade salad dressing recipes.
by Maggie Bullington
tucking a small patch of salad greens into the garden, growing in neat, crisp rows, is one of my springtime joys. My favorites include a collection of delicate burgundy-red oak leaf lettuce, romaine, standing tall in green, red, or speckled varieties, and pointed deer tongue lettuce with dark green leaves and succulent stems. It’s a homegrown, gourmet salad bar, ready at a moment’s notice!
These lettuces are generally very easy and rewarding to grow from seed. Depending on your growing zone, seed can be direct sown in the late winter or early spring. Lettuce seeds don’t usually keep well, so I recommend starting with fresh seeds. After making shallow rows in prepared soil, sow the seed generously and cover it very lightly with just a dusting of dirt, then press it into the soil. When the seedlings begin to emerge, you can thin them right away to an appropriate spacing, about 4 to 8 inches apart. Or (my favorite option), allow the seedlings to reach a height of a couple of inches before thinning and use them to make the season’s first salad.
Prepping and Harvesting Leaf Lettuce for Salads
Once the plants take off, all your salad patch requires is a little watering, weeding, and regular harvesting. I like to pull off the mature leaves, keeping the core intact. Your lettuce patch will produce over a long season when managed this way.
I also love to throw in peas, spinach, violet, or kale, if they’re at hand, to give my homegrown salads added dimension and nutrients. Once everything’s picked and torn into bite-sized pieces, a salad spinner is ideal for washing the greens quickly and thoroughly. Now it’s time to create a healthful salad that pairs effortlessly with any meal.
But one look at a bottled salad dressing’s ingredient list can be enough to make those visions of sustainable and healthy eating wilt rapidly. While convenient and tasty, these concoctions are often filled with preservatives, colors, flavors, and oils that tax our bodies instead of nourishing them. It seems a shame to put these ingredients on our homegrown lettuce. So, why not make our own? It’s easy!
Salad Dressings & Recipes
According to research by groups such as the Weston A. Price Foundation, consuming healthy oils is beneficial to our diets. Something as simple as making homemade salad dressings can have a big impact on your family’s diet because it’s a step toward putting you in control of the oils you eat. For the recipes I’m sharing here, I use an organic extra virgin olive oil as my oil of choice. You might like to experiment with a combination of other oils for different flavors or possible health benefits. It’s also easy to swap out the vinegar for a unique flavor.
Preparation couldn’t be easier. Measure all the ingredients into a blender and mix until smooth. Or, for most recipes, you can skip cleaning the blender. Instead, put everything in a jar, cover, and shake it vigorously until it’s smooth. It’s ready to eat right away, or for a deeper flavor, make your dressing ahead and store it in the refrigerator. Homemade salad dressings last for weeks.
When you’re ready to use your salad dressing, pull it out to let the oils warm to room temperature before serving. If I’m in a hurry, I slide the jar into a container of warm water to speed things along. When it’s warmed up, give it another shake and serve. These homemade salad dressings can be served straight from the jar, in a decorative bottle or pitcher, or tossed with the greens before the toppings are added — right before they come to the table. Here are some of my family’s favorite recipes and ideas for toppings to make your homegrown, homemade salads shine!
Tangy French Dressing
This is our favorite for making taco salads. Everyone builds the salad on their plates, layering on lettuce, seasoned ground beef, cheese, crushed tortilla chips, salsa, sour cream, and this wonderful dressing.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup honey
- 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon dried minced onion
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon celery salt or salt and whole celery seeds
Instructions:
Add all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Or, add all ingredients to a quart jar and shake well until combined. Store in the refrigerator. Makes about 2 cups.
Creamy Italian Dressing
Thick and creamy, this dressing pairs well with a salad topped with cherry tomatoes, chopped bell peppers, and croutons.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup sour cream or homemade mayonnaise
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
- 1-1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
Instructions:
Stir all ingredients in a jar, adding extra oil to thin to desired consistency. Store in the refrigerator. Makes a little over 1 cup.
Blender Poppy Seed Vinaigrette
This is my go-to recipe, except I mix it in the jar. Try this on a salad with apples or strawberries, crispy nuts, and raisins or dried cranberries.
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
- 1 tablespoon dried minced onion
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions:
Combine all ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth. Store in the refrigerator. Makes about 1-1/3 cups.
Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing
A thick, savory dressing that goes well with a topping of chopped carrots, bell peppers, tomatoes, and toasted walnuts.
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup sliced fresh basil or 2 teaspoons dried basil
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste.
Instructions:
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, or combine in a jar and shake well until blended. If desired, add 2 to 4 tablespoons of water to reach the consistency of your choice. Store in the refrigerator. Let it come to room temperature before serving. Makes about 1-1/4 cups.
Simple Herb Dressing
Try this one with feta cheese and roasted sunflower seeds.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon basil, or other dried herbs
- Salt and pepper, to taste.
Instructions:
Add all ingredients to a pint jar. Cover and shake well to combine. Make at least an hour ahead to allow flavors to blend. Store in the refrigerator. Makes about 3/4 cup.
More Ways to Step Up Your Salads
- How to Make Vinegar and Other Vinegar Basics
- Garden Herbs List
- Fun and Flavorful Garlic Scapes Recipes
- How to Make Goat Milk Feta Cheese
Maggie Bullington lives in beautiful rural Alabama. When she’s not in the garden, you may find her in the kitchen, studying herbs, writing for her blog, InMySmallCorner.com, or working with her brother, the custom knife maker, at LucasForge.com.
Originally published in the May/June 2024 issue of Countryside and Small Stock Journal and regularly vetted for accuracy.
