I love the classic mixed green salad before a meal, but my Butter Lettuce Green Salad is crispy and herbal and perfect with my Orange Honey Dressing or White Balsamic Honey Mustard Vinaigrette. You can use a Balsamic Vinaigrette or any other type of dressing that has a hint of sweetness to balance the herbs and the fennel.

green salad on round platter with serving utensils

What’s is this beautifully green hued salad? Tender butter lettuce that is topped with crispy English cucumber, thinly sliced fennel bulb, creamy avocado, parsley, dill leaves and garnished with mint leaves. I always use a vinaigrette on this salad and it’s almost always my Orange Honey Dressing.

What is a Mixed green salad?

We typically refer to a mixed “Green Salad” as a starter portion of a dinner and typically without a protein source. The mixed green salad we are accustomed to is typically romaine, iceberg or baby lettuce and it’s topped with tomatoes, cucumber, maybe some carrots and thinly sliced onions. It’s a small portion served before a dinner entree and is typically vegetables only.

Butter lettuce is part of the Bibb and Boston lettuce varieties. It’s often sold with the roots attached and the leaves are smooth and round. This variety is sweet and mild in flavor and often the choice of lettuce for recipes that require a lettuce leaf as a scooping vessel. Think of low carb tacos, Thai lettuce wraps know as Larb Gai or Korean Grilled beef lettuce wraps. Because of it’s flavor, it’s my favorite to use in this salad…it mixes well with the cool cucumber and the anise flavor of the fennel.

How to make this Butter Lettuce Green Salad

Sometimes the heads of butter lettuce are quite large. I like to include outer and inner leaves in this salad, so if your head is a large one, plan on half a head (as shown in my photo).

Carefully break off a leaf at a time from the outer edge and work your way in. Once I have all my leaves removed, I rinse them well in cold water and place them on a towel to dry. While the leaves are drying, rinse the English cucumber, dry and slice thinly with the green skin. Small Persian cucumbers work well for this salad too. 1 cup of cucumber slices or so is perfect for this salad.

Next is the Fennel bulb. If you have never tried fresh Fennel, it has the mild taste of black licorice or anise seed. I happen to love it! One of my favorites in a salad! I recommend buying a small to medium, sized bulb for this salad. Start by removing the top portion of the bulb where the frond stems are. Then slice it in half and remove the inner core. For this salad I use a mandolin to get really thin slices of fennel. Almost shaved…you can also use a knife, just cut as thin as possible. Once sliced, set aside.

fennel on board — Remove core from fennel

Now let’s prepare the herbs. I use flat leaf Parsley, and I use the leaves only. I use a generous amount of herbs. Next pinch of some Dill sprigs…these are the tiny ends with the leaves off of the stem. And finally just a few leaves of mint, you don’t need a lot of mint..just a few will do.

Lastly, peel and slice your avocado. I add this after the salad is dressed and is ready to serve.

Let’s assemble the salad

Place the dried lettuce leaves on a large platter and sprinkle the shaved fennel over the leaves. Next tuck some cucumber slices on the plate among the leaves and fennel. Sprinkle your prepared herbs all over. If you are ready to serve the salad, carefully pour some Orange Honey Dressing on top of the all the greens and top with sliced avocado, pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper.

Every bite has crisp cool vibes with a touch of herbs and licorice. The dressing is perfection on this salad.

Substitutions and tips

Don’t dress the salad until ready to serve.
This can easily be made in advance but hold off on the avocado until ready to serve.
You can substitute Celery for Fennel.
You can use Little Gem lettuce or tender Romaine hearts.
A creamy Ranch or Green Goddess is amazing on this salad.
You can use regular cucumber, just peel and remove the seeds and also slice thinly.
You can add cold, cooked jumbo shrimp for a beautiful brunch salad.

Enjoy this amazing Butter Leaf Green Salad!

side view of butter lettuce green salad with utensils

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