Healthy eating just got a lot more delicious! You’ll love this winter romaine salad full of crunchy lettuce, creamy avocados, and slivered almonds along with fresh cucumbers and sliced red onions. Drizzle a tangy yogurt over it all and call it dinner!
Hello, all!
When the weather gets cold and the really fresh, flavorful produce at the supermarket gets harder to find, that’s when it’s time to make this winter romaine salad.
The green color with little hints of red is a balm to the eyes. The different crunchy and creamy textures are a pleasure for the mouth. And the flavor is a treat for your hungry stomach. Just looking at the picture I could eat another bowl of it right now!
And, like many salads, it’s a snap to make.
A little whisking to make the yogurt dressing and a little chopping to get all the veggies sliced up. It probably took me longer to write down the recipe here than it did to make the salad.
Two rules to make it the best salad you can:
- Don’t skimp on the parsley – that is an important flavor in the dressing!
- And make sure your avocados are at that creamy, ripe stage. You need their soft, smooth texture to provide the right balance.
The first few times I made this salad, I didn’t have any nuts in the mix, but it didn’t take me long to realize something was missing.
What the salad needed was the meaty, crunchy flavor of nuts. And I feel they add some warmth to the salad too. I don’t know why, but I think of nuts as being an inherently warm flavor. And all those thoughts led me right back to my absolute favorite summer salad! My Green Bean Salad with Goat Cheese and Almonds, which includes some olive oil fried slivered almonds. These almonds are seriously good and I decided that only they would do to top my new favorite winter romaine salad.
If you try my recipe for Winter Romaine Salad, I would love to hear from you in the comments with your experience and rating! And I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.
– Happy Eating, Annemarie
Winter Romaine Salad with Yogurt Dressing
Ingredients
Yogurt Dressing
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt, 2% or whole milk
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small clove garlic, finely minced or grated
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Romaine Salad
- 1 large head romaine lettuce, washed and dried well
- 1/2 large cucumber
- 1/2 small red onion
- 1 avocado
- 1/4 cup slivered almonds
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
Yogurt Dressing
- In a medium bowl and whisk together all dressing ingredients until fully combined.
- Set aside for the flavors to develop while you make the rest of the salad.
Romaine Salad
- Chop the romaine lettuce into slices about 1/2 thick. You'll need 4-6 cups of lettuce.
- Cut the cucumber lengthwise and then slice thin half-moons.
- Slice the red onion to make thin quarter slices. And then cut the avocado in half; scoop out each half and slice it 1/4 inch thick.
- For the almonds, heat the olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the almonds and fry until golden brown, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from skillet and let drain on a plate lined with paper towels.
- Add romaine, cucumbers, and onion to a serving dish.
- Pour about half the dressing over the top and toss to combine.
- Distribute avocado and almonds over the top and serve with extra dressing on the side.
Notes
- Cucumber: Use a thin skinned cucumber with small seeds for the recipe, such as an English cucumber. Or use the small Persian cucumbers which come packaged 4-5 together (in that case use 2-3 of the cucumbers for the recipe).
- Make Ahead: You can make the yogurt dressing up to 2 days ahead.
Natasha says
This looks so tasty!! I love avocado in salad and I’ve been experimenting with yogurt-based dressings lately. Pinned!
justalittlebitofbacon says
Thank you! You should have seen me nibbling at the salad while I was supposed to be trying to take photos of it. 🙂