Simple green salad with lemon vinaigrette
Crisp lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes in a bright lemon dressing you shake in a jar, the salad that goes with nearly every dinner.
- 15 min total
- 15 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 4
- About $1.70 a serving
- 220 calories
- Vegan
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: It’s ready in 15 minutes, start to finish.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp maple syrup
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 romaine lettuce, hearts
- ½ English cucumber
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes
- ¼ red onion
From your pantry
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 220 calories, 2 g protein, 10 g carbs and 21 g fat, and costs about $1.70 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No romaine lettuce? Green leaf lettuce or iceberg lettuce or butter lettuce works.
- No English cucumbers? Cucumbers or mini cucumbers work.
- No red onions? White onions or yellow onions work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Squeeze the lemon juice into a jar with a lid, then add the oil, mustard, maple syrup, garlic, salt and pepper.
Screw on the lid and shake hard for 15 seconds, until the dressing looks creamy and blended.
Dolly’s tip: The mustard holds the oil and lemon together, so the dressing stays creamy instead of separating.Taste it on a leaf and add more salt if it tastes sharp.
Pinch. A pinch is what you can hold between your thumb and two fingers, less than an eighth of a teaspoon. It’s a small, forgiving amount, so there’s no need to measure.
How you’ll know: It’s a light sprinkle you can barely see on the food, not a little pile.
the romaine into bite-size pieces, then it and or spin it completely dry.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Pat dry. Patting dry means pressing paper towels onto food to soak up the moisture on its surface. Wet food steams instead of browning, so this is how you get a good sear and crisp skin.
How you’ll know: The surface feels tacky, not wet, and the last paper towel comes away barely damp.
Dolly’s tip: Dressing slides right off wet lettuce, so dry leaves make all the difference.the cucumber and red onion and the tomatoes.
Thinly slice. Thinly slicing means cutting slices about an eighth of an inch thick, roughly two coins stacked. Thin slices cook in seconds and soften fast, which quick dishes need.
How you’ll know: A slice bends a little when you hold it by one edge, and slow, steady cuts beat fast ones.
Halve. Halving means cutting something into two equal pieces. Even halves cook at the same speed, so one doesn’t dry out while the other finishes.
How you’ll know: The two pieces look like mirror images of each other.
Put everything in a big bowl, with half the dressing, and with your hands until every leaf shines.
Drizzle. Drizzling means pouring a thin, slow stream over the top of something. A thin stream spreads a little flavor a long way.
How you’ll know: You see thin lines across the food, not a puddle collecting underneath.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Add more dressing a spoonful at a time until it tastes right, and serve right away.
Dolly’s tip: Dress it at the last minute. Extra dressing keeps in the fridge for up to 4 days; it has raw garlic in oil, so don’t keep it longer.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
When you host a dinner, Dollop builds the menu around your guests’ allergies, works out a cooking timeline back from when everyone sits down, and puts it all on one grocery list.
