Baby Lettuce and Olive Oil Bread Salad is a delicious, light and incredible side dish for any meal! This baby butter lettuce salad is packed with tomatoes, sweet lettuce and is ready in under 30 minutes.
Making this Boston lettuce salad is so simple, the ingredients come together quickly and the results are an incredible salad. The homemade croutons on this delightful side dish are the main star in this wonderful summer salad.
Baby Lettuce with Olive Oil Bread Salad
We have a love-hate relationship with salad, we should love them except not all of them are as tasty as we would like. This salad however is one of my favorite go-to salads that I actually do enjoy. It is easy, fresh, and has enough yummy stuff to offset the lettuce. OH and it has fresh bread croutons, what’s not to love?!
Key to a Perfect Salad
The key to this salad, or any salad in my book, really is the crouton portion. I LOVE HOMEMADE CROUTONS!!! Hearty bread ripped up, drizzled, and shaken around in olive oil, coated with salt and pepper, broiled or toasted for just a few minutes and served soon thereafter speaks right to one’s heart! I am telling you, homemade croutons are a must!
While you can serve this with any dressing, I am partial to a good drizzle of olive oil, a few shakes of red wine vinegar, coarse salt, pepper, and oregano. From there you can add cheese, fruit (dried or fresh), and any veggie you can think of! Usually I add spring mix and spinach, but this day I was all out. I had never tried zucchini in salad before, but it was really tasty! There is nothing like a good, hearty, salad to remind me that eating healthy can still taste good!
Baby Lettuce and Olive Oil Bread Salad Ingredients
Bread: You will need 3 slices of rustic bread, I used a mini baguette for this recipe. Any fresh bread you have on hand will work, it can be a loaf of bread or baguette.
Tomatoes: Use 1 pound of ripe tomatoes for a nice tangy addition to this amazing salad recipe.
Cucumber or Zucchini: Adding in 1 small zucchini or cucumber, sliced, will add great flavor and healthy vitamins to this side dish.
Lettuce: You need 1 head of baby or Boston lettuce, separated, for the base of this salad recipe.
Olives: Add in 1/4 cup of Kalamata olives, although if you cannot find these using black olives will taste great too.
Olive oil: You will need 1 cup of olive oil, divided, to coat the bread in to create a nice crunchy crouton and dressing for the salad.
Seasonings: Using coarse salt and pepper will provide some subtle and delicious seasoning to this salad.
Red wine vinegar: Adding in 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar will give this salad amazing flavor.
Oregano: Sprinkle in a bit of oregano for a nice earthy taste.
Step by step on how to make Salad with Homemade Croutons
Croutons
Start by preheating the oven to 375 degrees F.
Then begin tearing up or chopping the bread of your choice into the size of cubes you prefer for your croutons. It is important they are uniform in size so they bake evenly. Put the pieces of bread into a large bowl and drizzle with a 1/4 cup of olive oil and toss to coat well. Sprinkle with some salt and pepper and stir again to combine.
Spread the bread onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, place into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. About half way through, turn the croutons over and bake the remainder of the time. Let cool to room temperature before adding to the salad.
Assembly
Wash the tomatoes, Cucumber or Zucchini, and lettuce. Shred the lettuce and place in a large serving bowl. Dice the tomatoes and cucumber/zucchini and add to the bowl with the lettuce. Drain the olives, slice in half and add to the bowl as well.
In a separate small bowl, add 3/4 cup of olive oil, the red wine vinegar, a dash of each salt and pepper and the oregano. Whisk to combine.
Proceed to add the cooled croutons to the bowl of salad, pour the dressing over the top, and toss the ingredients to mix the dressing and all ingredients together.
Serve immediately and enjoy!
Baby Lettuce and Olive Oil Bread Salad
Ingredients
- 3 Slices of rustic bread I used a mini baguette for this recipe
- 1 pound Tomatoes diced
- 1 Cucumber or Zucchini sliced
- 1 Head of baby or Boston lettuce
- ¼ cup Kalamata olives or black olives
- 1 cup Olive oil divided
- ½ tsp Of each salt and pepper
- 1 tbsp Red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp Oregano
Instructions
- Croutons: Start by preheating the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Then begin tearing up or chopping the bread of your choice into the size of cubes you prefer for your croutons. It is important they are uniform in size so they bake evenly. Put the pieces of bread into a large bowl and drizzle with a 1/4 cup of olive oil and toss to coat well. Sprinkle with some salt and pepper and stir again to combine.
- Spread the bread onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, place into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. About half way through, turn the croutons over and bake the remainder of the time. Let cool to room temperature before adding to the salad.
- Assembly: Wash the tomatoes, Cucumber or Zucchini, and lettuce. Shred the lettuce and place in a large serving bowl. Dice the tomatoes and cucumber/zucchini and add to the bowl with the lettuce. Drain the olives, slice in half and add to the bowl as well.
- In a separate small bowl, add 3/4 cup of olive oil, the red wine vinegar, a dash of each salt and pepper and the oregano. Whisk to combine.
- Proceed to add the cooled croutons to the bowl of salad, pour the dressing over the top, and toss the ingredients to mix the dressing and all ingredients together. Serve immediately and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
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Can I add protein to this salad for a more full meal?
I love having salad as a meal, but when I do that, I feel like it needs some protein. This salad is absolutely delicious with chicken. I usually throw in a handful of rotisserie chicken to a single serving of the salad and it is perfect. Grilled chicken works great too. You can just season the chicken with a little bit of salt before grilling or you can try our simple Grilled Teriyaki Chicken – it goes really well with this salad.
How long is this salad good for?
You can keep this salad in the refrigerator for 1-2 days. However, with the dressing on it the lettuce might become mushy, so it is best to enjoy it day of if possible. Or, you can put the dressing only on a single serving and the bare salad will last 2-3 days.
If you enjoyed this salad recipe, try more of our favorites here!
- Fiesta Ranch Chicken Pasta Salad
- Fancy Fruit Salad
- Orange Cream Fruit Salad
- Chicken Pasta Salad
- Cranberry Jello Salad
- Tropical Jello Pretzel Salad
- Creamy Orange Fruit Salad
- Berries and Cream Salad
- Cream Cheese Grape Salad
- Berry Spinach Salad
- Copycat KFC Coleslaw recipe
- Garden Vegetable Caprese Salad
- Spinach Chicken Pasta Salad
- Lemon Caesar Salad
Baby Lettuce and Olive Oil Bread Salad is a tasty, light and delicious side dish! This baby butter lettuce salad is loaded with tomatoes, baby lettuce and is ready in under 30 minutes.
tammy says
how much olive oil do you use in the salad itself? Could you give a suggestion as to what kind of spices you use? Thank you.