Iceberg Lettuce Salad with Blue Cheese and Herbs
Iceberg gets dismissed as the lettuce with nothing to say, which misses the point entirely: it isn't there for flavour, it's there for cold and crunch. Cut into thick wedges and left whole, it stays icy and snapping under a thick buttermilk and blue cheese dressing that would flatten any softer leaf. Chives, dill, cherry tomatoes, and raw red onion do the talking. It's a steakhouse salad that needs both a fork and a knife.
Ingredients
- 1 pcsiceberg lettuce
- 120 gblue cheese
- 80 mlbuttermilk
- 100 gsour cream
- 60 gmayonnaise
- 1 pcslemon
- 1 bunchchives
- 1 bunchdill
- 200 gcherry tomatoes
- 1 pcsred onion
Method
- Make the dressing first so it has time to chill. Warm the blue cheese for 15 seconds in a microwave or a small pan until it just begins to soften — this lets it blend smoothly instead of staying in stubborn lumps.
- Mash two thirds of the softened cheese with the sour cream and mayonnaise, then loosen with the buttermilk until it pours thickly from a spoon. Season with lemon juice, salt, and plenty of black pepper, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
- Pull off the limp outer leaves of the iceberg, then cut the head in half through the core and each half into two thick wedges. Leave the core attached — it is the only thing holding each wedge together.
- Rinse the wedges under cold water, shake them out, and pat them thoroughly dry. Any water left clinging will thin the dressing and slide it straight off the leaves.
- Chill the dry wedges in the fridge for 15 minutes while you halve the cherry tomatoes, slice the red onion paper-thin, and chop the chives and dill.
- Set each wedge cut-side up on a cold plate and spoon the dressing over so it runs down between the layers rather than sitting only on top.
- Scatter over the remaining crumbled blue cheese, the tomatoes, onion, and herbs, and finish with black pepper and a squeeze of lemon. Serve immediately, while the lettuce is still cold.
FAQ
It's a poor choice for some salads and the right one for this. Iceberg is mostly water and has very little flavour, which makes it wrong for delicate vinaigrettes or anything where the leaf is meant to taste of something — a Caesar, for example, is far better with romaine. But that same high water content is exactly what keeps it icy cold and audibly crisp under a thick, heavy dressing that would wilt softer leaves on contact. Here it's a texture ingredient, not a flavour one.
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