Cucumber & Radish Salad with Creamy Buttermilk Dressing – Recipe!

Salads don’t need to be complicated, but they do need to be delicious.  Making a simple salad with fresh greens and tossing in a few vegetables is pretty standard in most of our households.  Getting people to eat salad like they do a hamburger or pizza is another thing, and one way to achieve that goal, is make a great salad dressing.  It’s a trick I have used my whole life with my son, my friend’s sons and now my grandson, and if you make a good salad dressing they will eat what’s under it.

Buttermilk, the slightly soured milk sold in every grocery store under the sun, makes a delicious dressing.  Adding fresh herbs and a glove of garlic is a game changer, and it blends up into a delicately creamy dressing that coats a bowl of greens beautifully.  I like to prepare my dressing in a mini-food processor, but any blender will do.  The salad comes alive once the dressing hits the leaves and with a vigorous toss, you have yourself a salad that everyone will enjoy.

Ingredients

8 butter lettuce leaves, hand torn

3 cups baby spinach leaves

8 radishes, sliced

1 whole cucumber, cut into half moon slices

Buttermilk Dressing

1 clove garlic, peeled

1/2 cup good mayonnaise

1/3 cup buttermilk

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves

pinch of salt & pepper

(Serves 4-6)

To Prepare:

1. In a large bowl, combine butter lettuce, spinach, radishes and cucumbers, toss.
2. In a food processor or blender, add clove of garlic and pulse until coarsely chopped.  Add mayonnaise, buttermilk, and Dijon.  Pulse until combined and creamy.  Add thyme, salt & pepper and pulse again until just combined.
3. Pour dressing over salad and toss.  Enjoy!