Bibb Lettuce Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette

Poole's: Recipes and Stories from a Modern Diner

This is the simplest salad I have ever made -- just lettuce, vinaigrette, and cheese. But it didn't feel like anything was missing! I also used my favorite, super simple, method to make the vinaigrette this time; instead of using a bowl and a whisk, I just throw everything into a jar and shake it up. (The best part about that is the leftover dressing goes right into the fridge, and it just needs another shake before you use it the next time.)

I do love a salad loaded with different textures and flavors, but there's something to be said for this one, too. You should give it a try!

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather on this episode we're going
[00:08]: to be making
[00:10]: two recipes very quickly from the pools
[00:13]: diner cookbook uh because we haven't
[00:16]: made this yet and well
[00:18]: it's super simple we're going on a
[00:21]: vacation tomorrow it'll be way before
[00:24]: you guys see it that will be over um but
[00:27]: we have some bib lettuce
[00:30]: in the refrigerator that we either need
[00:32]: to take with us or
[00:34]: use up so we're going to use it up today
[00:37]: and we're going to be making a bib
[00:39]: lettuce salad
[00:40]: which uses
[00:42]: the red wine vinaigrette that's also in
[00:45]: this book
[00:46]: um we have made yeah we made the sweet
[00:49]: onion vinaigrette before i'll link that
[00:51]: up here we did that with her method
[00:54]: i'm not gonna be doing that today
[00:56]: because i'm just trying to get this done
[00:59]: and i
[01:01]: quite often
[01:03]: make my vinaigrettes this way
[01:05]: super simple throw things in
[01:08]: shake it up works really well
[01:11]: plus
[01:12]: we don't quite have all of the correct
[01:14]: ingredients for this so i'm not
[01:17]: i'm not too worried about it um
[01:20]: the first thing we need to do for the
[01:22]: vinaigrette however is to
[01:25]: soak our uh they're supposed to be
[01:28]: shallots but we didn't have any shallots
[01:31]: we usually do
[01:32]: happen to be all out right now
[01:35]: but i have minced a
[01:37]: red onion a really small half of a
[01:39]: really small red onion
[01:41]: and i'm going to measure it out
[01:43]: into this
[01:46]: jar i think it's like a two cup
[01:48]: um
[01:49]: pint i need to know half pint
[01:52]: no
[01:53]: whatever it's two cup jar
[01:56]: i forget what those are called
[01:58]: um
[01:60]: but yeah so it'll hold all of the
[02:02]: ingredients that we need it to hold here
[02:04]: um
[02:05]: and so i'm gonna put this these are
[02:07]: standing in for our shallots
[02:10]: you can use anything you have that's
[02:12]: this sort of lets you know you can use
[02:13]: what you have um
[02:16]: i might i might have put a little bit of
[02:17]: garlic in if i really wanted to because
[02:20]: shallots have a little bit of a garlic
[02:21]: flavor we're just going to leave it with
[02:23]: the red onions right now
[02:25]: and this is red wine vinegar this is
[02:28]: nothing special it's not the daniel's
[02:30]: vinegar although
[02:32]: i think we've done the daniels
[02:33]: vinaigrette as well
[02:35]: with a different recipe
[02:38]: i know we've done it because i still
[02:39]: have some
[02:40]: i'll link that up here
[02:42]: um
[02:44]: when i figure out what it was so uh
[02:48]: we need to let this sit
[02:51]: for 15 minutes and that will sort of
[02:54]: uh put some of the oniony flavor into
[02:56]: the vinegar and reduce some of the bite
[02:60]: from the onion
[03:01]: so
[03:02]: we're just gonna let that marinate for
[03:04]: 15 minutes
[03:05]: while that's marinating i'm going to get
[03:08]: the rest of the ingredients for my salad
[03:10]: prepared
[03:11]: first i'm going to measure out
[03:13]: the oil that we need for the vinaigrette
[03:16]: in the same
[03:17]: measuring cup because why not
[03:20]: they're all getting mixed together in
[03:21]: the end
[03:23]: i am using
[03:24]: avocado oil because i've had this for a
[03:26]: while and i just need to use it up
[03:28]: um
[03:29]: but any neutral vegetable oil often i
[03:32]: will use grape seed oil
[03:36]: canola oil anything that you like to use
[03:38]: that isn't
[03:39]: super flavorful you want the flavor to
[03:41]: come from the vinegar and the onions
[03:44]: and that's about it um so i measured
[03:47]: that out
[03:49]: letting this sit
[03:50]: now i need to take care of
[03:52]: the
[03:53]: lettuce
[03:54]: for
[03:55]: the salad part and get that
[03:57]: so
[03:59]: we have some kind of small heads of big
[04:02]: lettuce here
[04:06]: we are going to
[04:10]: these are all they still have the roots
[04:12]: attached they last a pretty long time
[04:14]: because of that
[04:16]: um
[04:17]: i'm going to be pulling them off
[04:20]: some of them have bits
[04:22]: where they are a little
[04:25]: not perfect i'll take care of that later
[04:29]: just because i don't feel like it right
[04:30]: now
[04:31]: we are leaving these
[04:33]: leaves whole however
[04:36]: and i'm going to put these
[04:37]: in my salad spinner
[04:42]: sort of all of those
[04:45]: and then all of these
[04:47]: we're deliberately leaving these whole
[04:49]: and they're going to stay whole
[04:53]: all right
[04:54]: there we go
[04:59]: now i saw something new about how you're
[05:02]: actually supposed to use these salad
[05:03]: spinners first i'm going to uh rinse it
[05:07]: not in here and then i'm going to fill
[05:10]: it up fill it up with water inside the
[05:12]: bowl
[05:13]: and
[05:14]: when everything sort of is clear then
[05:17]: i'm going to
[05:19]: um drain it
[05:21]: and spin it
[05:23]: so i've never done that before
[05:26]: apparently i'm using it wrong we'll see
[05:28]: how that works
[05:29]: i just want to see and i'm going to put
[05:30]: it on camera just in case
[05:32]: um
[05:36]: i don't see a bunch a bunch of dirt
[05:38]: there's a little bit in there so i'm not
[05:41]: i don't i think these this lettuce in
[05:43]: particular i think is hydroponically
[05:45]: grown i'm not positive
[05:47]: but
[05:48]: there's not a whole lot of dirt so i'm
[05:50]: going to
[05:51]: drain it and then spin it to try to get
[05:53]: it as dry as possible
[05:55]: very wet
[05:59]: this is going to require several spins
[06:01]: to get it pretty dry but
[06:08]: [Applause]
[06:14]: i like to spin it once and then let all
[06:16]: the water out
[06:18]: awful lot of water there and then just
[06:20]: spin it until i think it's dry
[06:24]: okay
[06:26]: that's
[06:28]: a little damp but not too bad i'm gonna
[06:30]: call that good
[06:32]: and i'm gonna clean this up a little bit
[06:34]: i have a very large bowl here
[06:37]: um and i'm going to be
[06:40]: making sure that our lettuce doesn't
[06:42]: have any yucky pieces that i don't want
[06:44]: to eat and if it does i'm going to pull
[06:46]: them off
[06:47]: throw them away
[06:49]: but mostly try to keep it whole so like
[06:51]: this is this is kind of yucky so
[06:54]: tossing it in the sink for now i'll take
[06:56]: care of it later
[06:57]: um
[06:59]: this one has just a little bit of us
[07:03]: a little bit
[07:04]: of yucky on the edge so that's not a big
[07:07]: deal
[07:08]: so i'm just picking through it making
[07:11]: sure
[07:12]: i only
[07:14]: put stuff that i want to eat in this
[07:17]: bowl
[07:18]: um we might end up with a little bit
[07:21]: less
[07:23]: lettuce
[07:24]: than we are supposed to have for this
[07:27]: um
[07:28]: but it'll be plenty for
[07:30]: for our purposes
[07:33]: that's enough
[07:34]: we have our lettuce in here
[07:39]: it's probably
[07:41]: not quite as much as i'm supposed to
[07:42]: have for this recipe but we'll do
[07:45]: we still have
[07:46]: about four minutes to wait
[07:48]: for our
[07:50]: um
[07:50]: marinating onions here
[07:54]: okay i have about four minutes left on
[07:56]: my timer probably less now but i'm not
[07:58]: going to do anything else until my
[07:60]: dressing is done
[08:01]: okay
[08:03]: got about another minute left timer is
[08:05]: going to go off any minute now i'm going
[08:06]: to go ahead and
[08:08]: start the rest of my stuff
[08:10]: i'm supposed to add just a pinch of salt
[08:12]: she says to use sea salt i'm using my
[08:15]: usual
[08:16]: kosher salt
[08:18]: and we're gonna add
[08:20]: some
[08:22]: um dijon mustard
[08:27]: i'm just gonna
[08:31]: get that
[08:33]: there we go
[08:34]: now i don't need this anymore it's going
[08:36]: in
[08:37]: it's going in sync
[08:39]: okay so
[08:42]: she has you whisk this in a bowl
[08:44]: i'm gonna shake this up to start my uh
[08:46]: emulsion
[08:52]: there we
[08:53]: go um
[08:55]: and now instead of
[08:58]: slowly pouring this in
[09:00]: uh
[09:02]: i'm gonna pour it all in
[09:04]: you're supposed to slowly pour it in
[09:05]: while you whisk
[09:07]: i'm just pouring it all in
[09:10]: because this is how i make it at home
[09:11]: and it works
[09:13]: you can look at the sweet onion
[09:14]: vinaigrette video which i've already
[09:16]: linked and hopefully will be also down
[09:18]: below
[09:20]: to watch me slowly pour it in and whisk
[09:23]: and it's kind of a thing
[09:25]: so i'm just gonna
[09:26]: shake this until i think it's good
[09:34]: see
[09:34]: dressing
[09:36]: that's good for now i'm gonna taste it
[09:40]: she says to use a spoon
[09:42]: i like to use i'm gonna use a little
[09:45]: piece of lettuce taste it
[09:49]: i need salt
[09:52]: tastes very vinegary
[09:54]: but i don't
[09:56]: get enough salt
[09:58]: so
[10:00]: and then i'm gonna
[10:01]: shake it up again
[10:04]: [Laughter]
[10:08]: there we go
[10:09]: so that is it for the red wine
[10:11]: vinaigrette and the good thing about
[10:12]: this is i put this in my refrigerator
[10:14]: whatever we don't use because we are not
[10:16]: going to use the whole batch for this
[10:18]: salad um whatever we don't use goes in
[10:20]: the refrigerator and before i use it
[10:22]: again i just shake it up
[10:24]: now we've washed and thoroughly dried
[10:26]: our lettuce we are supposed to
[10:28]: add some salt
[10:31]: i don't think i have quite as much
[10:34]: as she says so i'm gonna go with
[10:37]: not quite as much salt as she says
[10:40]: it still seems like quite a bit
[10:42]: and pepper
[10:51]: all right
[10:51]: so there's that you're supposed to mix
[10:53]: with your hands to distribute
[10:56]: the salt and pepper
[11:00]: and now
[11:01]: i'm supposed to measure this vinaigrette
[11:04]: before i put it in
[11:07]: again i think i have less than i'm
[11:09]: supposed to
[11:11]: so
[11:12]: um
[11:13]: what i'm going to do is measure it i'm
[11:15]: going to pour it in here the amount she
[11:17]: says
[11:18]: and then i'm just going to pour
[11:21]: from there
[11:22]: um
[11:24]: some of it
[11:27]: and toss it what i think it probably
[11:29]: needs
[11:32]: which is probably
[11:35]: about half
[11:36]: um because i feel like i just
[11:38]: my lettuce heads were not as large yeah
[11:41]: that's plenty of dressing for this
[11:45]: so there we go
[11:47]: those are nicely coated
[11:50]: um we're supposed to
[11:52]: divide this into four plates and um
[11:55]: i'm gonna wash my hands combine my
[11:58]: uh
[11:59]: dressing again
[12:00]: into this container so i can put it in
[12:02]: the refrigerator
[12:03]: and then we're gonna plate it so let me
[12:05]: wash my hands
[12:06]: in order to not feel like
[12:08]: i need to wash my hands again before i
[12:10]: touch the cheese and the crater i'm
[12:13]: going to use my
[12:15]: tongs here to sort of pile up
[12:18]: these full lettuce leaves like i said
[12:21]: we're going to do one big salad
[12:24]: instead of four
[12:25]: separate ones
[12:27]: but we're
[12:29]: we want this to be piled high we want
[12:31]: these leaves to be all separate
[12:35]: all whole
[12:42]: there we go
[12:43]: so that's
[12:45]: our salad
[12:48]: and all we have to add now is
[12:50]: quite a lot of parmesan um i don't know
[12:53]: that this is even as much as i'm
[12:54]: supposed to add i'm gonna add until
[12:57]: it looks like a lot
[12:59]: so
[13:00]: because
[13:01]: i feel like we have about half the salad
[13:03]: so i'm gonna add about as half as much
[13:05]: as she says
[13:07]: so now
[13:08]: parmesan
[13:09]: finely grated all over top until it
[13:12]: looks like way too much
[13:14]: at least that's what the pictures look
[13:15]: like to me
[13:19]: because this is that simple of a salad
[13:26]: but i think that i think that looks like
[13:28]: too much
[13:30]: so it's probably just enough
[13:34]: there we go
[13:35]: that's our salad it was all pretty
[13:37]: simple made it in just over 15 minutes
[13:40]: and it only took that long because i was
[13:41]: supposed to wait 15 minutes
[13:43]: for the onions for the red onion
[13:46]: vinaigrette but there we go that's our
[13:48]: bib salad we'll let you know in just a
[13:50]: minute what we think on this episode of
[13:52]: cooking the books with heather you
[13:54]: watched me make this
[13:55]: bib lettuce salad that we have
[13:57]: demolished
[13:58]: um
[14:00]: and the red wine vinaigrette from the
[14:03]: pools on our cookbook by ashley
[14:05]: christensen and caitlin golden
[14:07]: um
[14:09]: it was a very simple salad so really
[14:11]: probably the ingredients
[14:14]: have to be
[14:15]: well don't have to be but the better
[14:17]: your ingredients are the better the
[14:19]: salad is going to be it was really good
[14:22]: i think i might have put
[14:24]: almost too much salt on the
[14:26]: leaves themselves
[14:28]: that's just sort of a
[14:31]: proportion problem because like i said i
[14:33]: think i had
[14:35]: less
[14:36]: of the
[14:37]: bib lettuce than
[14:39]: the recipe calls for even though it was
[14:42]: it started out
[14:43]: what she said as far as the amount
[14:46]: mine might my heads might have been
[14:48]: smaller than the ones that she uses
[14:51]: whatever
[14:52]: i definitely needed about uh half of the
[14:55]: dressing because
[14:56]: it was well dressed with that
[14:59]: um we did end up adding a few croutons
[15:02]: that i had made previously and we just
[15:03]: had sitting around
[15:05]: um but we did try it without that
[15:08]: it's a very nice simple salad something
[15:11]: that you could throw together
[15:13]: on a weeknight very easily you can have
[15:16]: that dressing sort of sitting in the
[15:17]: refrigerator and waiting to go
[15:19]: um
[15:20]: and wash up your lettuce
[15:23]: shred some cheese
[15:25]: it's all done
[15:26]: i like my method for the vinaigrette it
[15:29]: worked out just fine just as it does
[15:31]: every time i do it at home usually
[15:34]: i don't measure the oil and vinegar i
[15:36]: usually make it
[15:38]: in a dijon mustard jar that's been you
[15:40]: know cleaned out and i
[15:43]: estimate based on the
[15:46]: words on the jar
[15:48]: how much i use but uh ratio is usually
[15:51]: about
[15:53]: three parts oil to one part
[15:56]: vinegar sometimes i'll go up to two to
[15:59]: one
[16:00]: um
[16:01]: so a little bit more vinegar
[16:04]: either way um
[16:06]: i like that method i really don't like
[16:09]: the whisking method so
[16:12]: just it's it's a lot of stuff and your
[16:13]: bowl likes to move and whatever
[16:16]: so simple just to shake it up so
[16:19]: at home that's what i prefer
[16:23]: but yeah super simple easy salad and uh
[16:26]: it the presentation is really beautiful
[16:29]: um with the the
[16:31]: leaves piled high so it's a little bit a
[16:34]: little bit fancy a little bit impressive
[16:35]: if you won't have guests and want to
[16:38]: you know make a simple salad
[16:40]: and it doesn't take that long we made it
[16:42]: in about 15 minutes
[16:44]: no problem
[16:45]: so
[16:46]: only because we had to wait 15 minutes
[16:48]: for the onions to sort of mellow out in
[16:50]: the vinegar
[16:51]: anyway
[16:52]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[16:54]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
[16:56]: subscribe button and come back and watch
[16:58]: me make something else next week
[16:60]: [Music]