Chef Thomas
A Ploughman's Salad
The old pub ploughman's, shaken loose from its board and laid across butter lettuce with a sharp mustard dressing, for the kind of lunch that feels like you've given yourself the afternoon off.
Culinary Explorer
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The Retro British Salad with Homemade Salad Cream
Created by Chef Thomas
A composed summer salad of butterhead lettuce, ripe tomatoes, cool cucumber, peppery radishes, and quartered eggs, with a proper homemade salad cream that makes the bottled sort seem like a distant memory.
Salads
British
Picnic
BBQ
25 min
Active Time
15 min cook•40 min total
Yield4 servings
There's a tomato on the windowsill that has been sitting in the sun since this morning. It smells like a tomato should: warm, slightly green at the stem, sweet underneath. That's when I know it's time for this salad. Not before.
This is the salad that sat on every table at every family gathering for decades. Butterhead lettuce, a few sliced tomatoes, cucumber, radishes, a hard-boiled egg or two, and a bottle of salad cream from the fridge door. Nobody called it a recipe. It was just what you ate when the weather turned warm. But somewhere along the way it got dismissed, pushed aside by leaves that came in bags and dressings that came from Italy, and I think something was lost in the swap.
The salad cream is the thing that brings it back. Made properly, at home, it's a different creature entirely from the bottled version: sharper, lighter, with a mustardy bite and a richness that comes from real eggs and real cream. It takes ten minutes and it transforms a plate of simple vegetables into something that feels like a quiet occasion. We're only making dinner. But this is the kind of dinner worth writing down.
I've put it in the notebook a few times over the years, always in summer: lettuce, egg, cream, sun. It never needs more detail than that.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
butterhead lettuce
Quantity
1 large
ripe tomatoes
Quantity
4
sliced into rounds
cucumber
Quantity
1
sliced
radishes
Quantity
1 bunch
trimmed and halved
large eggs
Quantity
4
for hard-boiling
spring onions
Quantity
a few
sliced finely
cress or watercress (optional)
Quantity
a small handful
large egg yolks
Quantity
2
for the salad cream
English mustard
Quantity
1 teaspoon
caster sugar
Quantity
1 tablespoon
white wine vinegar
Quantity
100ml
double cream
Quantity
150ml
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
white pepper
Quantity
to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| butterhead lettuce | 1 large |
| ripe tomatoessliced into rounds | 4 |
| cucumbersliced | 1 |
| radishestrimmed and halved | 1 bunch |
| large eggsfor hard-boiling | 4 |
| spring onionssliced finely | a few |
| cress or watercress (optional) | a small handful |
| large egg yolksfor the salad cream | 2 |
| English mustard | 1 teaspoon |
| caster sugar | 1 tablespoon |
| white wine vinegar | 100ml |
| double cream | 150ml |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| white pepper | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •Heatproof bowl and saucepan (for the salad cream)
- •Wooden spoon
- •Wide serving plate or shallow bowl
- •Small jug for the salad cream
Instructions
- 1
Boil the eggs
Lower the eggs into a pan of simmering water and cook for ten minutes. Not nine, not eleven. You want yolks that are just set the whole way through, with no grey ring and no wet centre. Lift them straight into cold water and leave them there while you get on with everything else. They'll peel better for it.
Start from simmering water, not cold. It gives you more control over the timing and the whites set more evenly. - 2
Make the salad cream
Whisk the egg yolks, mustard, sugar, and a good pinch of salt together in a heatproof bowl. Add the vinegar and whisk again. Set the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, not touching it, and stir steadily with a wooden spoon. After five minutes or so the mixture will start to thicken. You're looking for something that coats the back of the spoon and stays there when you draw a line through it with your finger. Take it off the heat. Let it cool for a few minutes, then fold in the cream. Taste it. It should be sharp and sweet and slightly mustardy, with the cream rounding everything out. Season with salt and white pepper. It will thicken further as it cools.
Keep the heat gentle and stir without stopping. If the mixture scrambles, push it through a sieve and carry on. Nobody will know. - 3
Prepare the salad
Separate the lettuce leaves by hand. Don't cut them. Wash and dry them gently, a clean tea towel works better than a spinner for butterhead because the leaves bruise easily. Slice the tomatoes into thick rounds. Peel the cucumber or don't, your choice, and slice it on the diagonal so the pieces are wide enough to hold the cream. Halve the radishes. Trim and slice the spring onions finely. If you've got cress or watercress, pick it over and set it aside.
If the tomatoes are good, properly ripe and warm from the windowsill, salt them lightly and let them sit for five minutes while you arrange everything else. It draws out their sweetness. - 4
Assemble the plate
This isn't a tossed salad. It's a composed one, and the arrangement is part of the pleasure. Lay the lettuce leaves on a wide plate or shallow bowl. Arrange the tomato slices across them, overlapping a little. Scatter the cucumber and radishes between and around. Peel the eggs, quarter them lengthways, and tuck them in. Scatter the spring onions and cress over the top. Spoon the salad cream generously alongside, or serve it in a small jug at the table so people can help themselves. Don't dress the whole thing in advance. The lettuce should be crisp when it meets the cream.
Chef Tips
- •The tomatoes make or break this. If they're not ripe, if they're cold from the fridge and taste of nothing, wait. A salad like this is only as good as its worst ingredient, and a sad tomato has no place on the plate. Leave them on the counter for a day or two. When they smell sweet and give slightly under your thumb, they're ready.
- •Salad cream is not mayonnaise. Don't treat it like one. It's sharper, looser, lighter. The vinegar is the backbone. If your first taste doesn't make you wince just slightly before the cream smooths it out, add a splash more.
- •This salad is best served on one big plate in the middle of the table, with the cream in a jug beside it, and people helping themselves. It's not a restaurant starter. It's the kind of food that belongs at a kitchen table on a Saturday afternoon, or outside if the weather allows it.
- •If you've got a garden with lettuce in it, this is its moment. A butterhead pulled twenty minutes ago, still cool from the soil, has a sweetness and a texture that nothing from a shop can match. If you don't, find the freshest head you can and use it the same day.
Advance Preparation
- •The salad cream can be made a day ahead and kept covered in the fridge. It thickens as it chills, so stir in a teaspoon of cold water before serving if it needs loosening.
- •Hard-boil the eggs up to a day ahead and keep them in their shells in the fridge. Peel and quarter them just before serving.
- •Don't prepare the lettuce, tomatoes, or cucumber in advance. They need to be fresh and crisp. This is a last-minute assembly, not a make-ahead meal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 400g)
Calories
335 calories
Total Fat
26 g
Saturated Fat
13 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
12 g
Cholesterol
330 mg
Sodium
415 mg
Total Carbohydrates
16 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
10 g
Protein
11 g
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