Cucumber, Little Gem Lettuce and Lovage Salad

The recipe for the salad is adapted from „The Book of St. John” by Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver and I’ve been making it a lot recently, especially in London and when I’m in a mood for a crunchy salad to accompany thinly sliced roast beef and horseradish sauce sandwiches.

Lovage, somehow, so easy to grow and a popular herb in many restaurants, it’s hard to come by. Therefore I add celery leaves instead, which work very well, and swap baby gem lettuce for butterhead leaves, depending on the availability.

Serves 2:

• baby gem lettuce x2, roughly chopped
• 1/2 of a cucumber (peeled lengthways in alternating strips), sliced
• some lovage or celery leaves, roughly chopped
• a generous teaspoon of capers

For the dressing:

• a quarter of a garlic clove, finely chopped
• 5 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons of cream
• lemon juice to taste
• a pinch of sugar
• salt
• pepper

Whisk all the ingredients for the dressing in a small bowl. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Place all the salad ingredients in a bigger bowl, pour the dressing all over and toss.

Serve immediately.