Easy Butter Lettuce Salad with Pomegranates and Pistachios

This Easy Butter Lettuce and Pomegranate Salad is perfect when you need a simple salad in a pinch. It's a delicious and simple salad with bright pomegranate seeds and crunchy pistachios.

This delicious salad recipe is the perfect side at dinner time.

If you need a healthy and gluten-free protein option to go alongside it, check out my Cast Iron Skillet Chicken Breast.

This butter lettuce salad recipe also goes really well with salmon.

Why not try with this Easy Baked Salmon with Mayo.

Inspired by my love for the tender butter lettuce leaves, this salad will be one you can go back to again and again.

Simple salads can be a fantastic way to get some vitamins, antioxidants and fibre into you - and they can help you stick with your gluten-free diet easily enough.

Try this Easy Quinoa Salad with Feta if simple salads are right up your alley.

Here's what you'll need to make this simple salad with pomegranate seeds:

• Butter lettuce - I love this "living lettuce" and it has 2 different varieties: 1 red butter and 1 Boston green
• Cucumber
• Pomegranate seeds - fresh or frozen (thawed) work
• Pistachios - shelled
• Apple cider vinegar
• Olive oil
• Garlic clove

Variations

The thing about salad recipes is that they're soooo fun to change up.

You never know what kind of delicious flavour combinations you'll discover.

Here are some other ingredients that go well with bib lettuce:

• Apples
• Avocado
• Basil
• Blue berries
• Blue Cheese
• Chives
• Fresh peaches
• Feta
• Grapefruit
• Grapes
• Lemon juice
• Lime juice
• Oranges
• Parsley
• Parmesan cheese
• Radishes

Here are a few combinations that would work well:

• Butter lettuce with grapes and feta
• Butter lettuce with avocado and chunks of fresh apple
• Butter lettuce with grapefruit sections and pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

Substitutions

If you don't have the butter lettuce on hand, you can easily sub-in other varieties of lettuce, such as:

• Leaf lettuce
• Bib lettuce (essentially the same thing as butter lettuce)
• Ice berg lettuce - brings a lovely crunch

Instead of the pomegranates, sub-in any other crunchy fruit like grapes or apple chunks.

See above for other fruit, cheese and veggies to try - really endless possibilities with this one.

For the dressing, instead of a vinaigrette-style, you can try a creamier one too.

A creamy dressing mimics the "creamy" leaves of the butter lettuce leaves.

Try whisking together some mayonnaise or Greek yogurt with lemon juice to thin it out. Add some fine herbs (like dill and chives) and you've got yourself a creamy dressing, perfect for bibb lettuce.

What do you eat butter lettuce with?

Butter lettuce leaves are the perfect thing to wrap up up deliciousness! You can fill them with shredded BBQ chicken; use them like a "lettuce taco" and fill them with browned ground beef, cheese and salsa; try them filled with shrimp and sticky rice with some gluten-free soy sauce; even try them stuffed with strawberries and a layer of cream cheese - yum! Of course, in salads, butter lettuce is also wonderful - they're a non-bitter leaf that you can add to any salad you make. And if you're making any kind of sandwich, a butter leaf or two adds some great texture and nutrition.

Why do they call butter lettuce butter lettuce?

Butter, bibb or Boston lettuce is a light, spring-like and has an almost creamy texture. Hence the name, butter lettuce. It doesn't have any fat, like butter does, and it doesn't pair particularly well with butter or other heavier foods.

Is butter lettuce a Superfood?

Like most varieties of lettuce, butter lettuce brings nutrition to the plate! Packed with Vitamin A, folate iron, niacin, and potassium, this humble leaf delivers in the nutrition department. And when you add more powerhouse ingredients into a salad made with this delicious lettuce like avocado, apples, lemon juice or olive oil for a dressing, you're upping the nutrition even more!

How do you get the pomegranate seeds out of the pomegranate?

Ok, I've heard some interesting ways to do this but lemme tell you my friend the best and easiest way to get the seeds outta there is this:

1. Cut the pomegranate in half.
2. Turn it upside down in your palm (so the cut-side is in the palm of your hand.)
3. Whack the back of it with a wooden spoon.

The seeds just come out! If I'm really in a pinch, I'll just do it right over the dish I'm serving (no one ever minds a little pom juice splatter really). 

Or you can do it over a large bowl to catch the pomegranate seeds and the pretty juice splatter.

I hope you love this delicious and simple winter salad as much as we do.

~April

Here's a some more easy and and gluten-free recipes:

• Healthy Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup (no beans)
• Easy Weeknight Hamburger Soup with Sweet Potatoes
• Gluten Free Slow Cooker Chili
• Creamy Slow Cooker Chicken with Chickpeas
• Simple Haddock Quesadillas
• Easy Winter Soup with Beans
• Simple Coleslaw Recipe (no mayo)

Originally posted on January 6th, 2021 this recipe post was updated and re-published on May 1st, 2022.