Culinary Advisor
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
A Simple Garden Salad with English Mustard Vinaigrette
Created by Chef Thomas
Butter lettuce, cool cucumber, peppery radishes, and the sharp bite of English mustard dressing. A July salad that belongs on the table next to whatever else you're having tonight.
The garden is doing what it does in July: producing more than you planned for. The lettuce has bolted twice already but there's a new head of butter lettuce that's just right, pale and soft, the leaves cupped like hands. The radishes pulled this morning are still cold from the soil. The cucumber doesn't need much. Neither does any of this.
A salad like this is barely a recipe. It's an assembly. But the dressing is where the quiet work happens, and English mustard is the thing that makes it distinctly ours. Not Dijon, not wholegrain, not anything polite. Colman's, from the tin if you've got it, mixed to a paste that clears the sinuses and makes the back of your throat pay attention. Tamed with a little vinegar, a touch of honey, and enough good oil to bring it all into line. It's sharp, warm, and entirely honest.
I make this salad from May through to September, adjusting as the weeks go by. Early summer gets the first radishes and spring onions. High summer brings the cucumbers and whatever herbs are sprawling across the path. The dressing stays the same. The market decides the rest. We're only making dinner.
Put this next to a piece of grilled fish, beside a chicken that's just come off the barbecue, or on its own with some bread and cheese on a warm evening when cooking feels like too much and eating in the garden feels like exactly enough.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary AdvisorIngredients
butter lettuce
Quantity
2 heads
leaves separated and washed
cucumber
Quantity
1
halved lengthways and sliced
radishes
Quantity
1 bunch
trimmed and thinly sliced
spring onions
Quantity
4
trimmed and finely sliced
soft herbs (optional)
Quantity
small handful
chives, dill, or flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
English mustard
Quantity
1 tablespoon
white wine vinegar
Quantity
1 tablespoon
runny honey
Quantity
1 teaspoon
good olive oil
Quantity
4 tablespoons
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
black pepper
Quantity
to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| butter lettuceleaves separated and washed | 2 heads |
| cucumberhalved lengthways and sliced | 1 |
| radishestrimmed and thinly sliced | 1 bunch |
| spring onionstrimmed and finely sliced | 4 |
| soft herbs (optional)chives, dill, or flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped | small handful |
| English mustard | 1 tablespoon |
| white wine vinegar | 1 tablespoon |
| runny honey | 1 teaspoon |
| good olive oil | 4 tablespoons |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| black pepper | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •Wide shallow serving bowl
- •Small jar with a lid for the vinaigrette
- •Salad spinner or clean tea towel for drying leaves
Instructions
- 1
Make the vinaigrette
Put the mustard, vinegar, honey, and a good pinch of salt into a small jar or bowl. Stir until the mustard dissolves and the honey loosens. Pour in the olive oil and shake or whisk until it comes together into something thick and emulsified, the colour of pale gold. Taste it. It should be sharp first, then warm from the mustard, with just enough sweetness to take the edge off. Adjust as you see fit. More vinegar if it's too mild. More oil if it bites too hard. This is your dressing for the next few days if you make enough.
English mustard is fiercer than French. Start with a level tablespoon and work up. You want heat that wakes the salad up, not heat that overwhelms it. - 2
Prepare the salad
Keep the lettuce leaves whole if they're small, torn in half if they're large. You want pieces you can pick up with your fingers, not shreds. Slice the cucumber into half-moons, not too thin. The radishes should be sliced finely enough to see light through them. Scatter the spring onions and tear any herbs over the top. All of this can sit in a wide bowl, loosely arranged, waiting for the dressing.
Wash the lettuce gently and dry it properly. A spinner is ideal. Wet leaves dilute the dressing and turn the whole thing limp. This matters more than you think. - 3
Dress and serve
Pour the vinaigrette over the salad just before you sit down. Not before. Use your hands to turn everything through the dressing, gently, so every leaf is glossed but nothing is drowned. You want the lettuce to glisten, not swim. Season with a little more salt and a grind of black pepper. Bring the bowl to the table and let people help themselves. That's it. That's the whole thing.
Chef Tips
- •The lettuce is the foundation. Butter lettuce is best here because it's tender enough to take the dressing without collapsing, and sweet enough to stand up to the mustard. Little Gem works well too. Iceberg does not. It has nothing to say.
- •Make the dressing in a jar with a lid. Shake it hard. It emulsifies better than whisking and you can keep the rest in the fridge for three or four days. It will separate. Shake it again. No harm done.
- •Radishes straight from the garden or the market have a peppery bite that fades within a day or two of sitting in the fridge. Use them quickly. If they've gone soft, they've missed their moment.
- •This salad wants to be dressed at the last possible second. Dressed too early, the lettuce wilts and the radishes lose their snap. Five minutes between dressing and eating is ideal. Two is better.
Advance Preparation
- •The vinaigrette can be made up to four days ahead and stored in a jar in the fridge. Shake well before using.
- •Lettuce can be washed, dried, and stored wrapped in a damp tea towel in the fridge for a few hours. Do not dress until the moment of serving.
- •Radishes and cucumber can be sliced an hour or two ahead and kept covered in the fridge, but no longer. They lose their crispness.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 240g)
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary mentorship, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Explore Culinary Advisor