Rhubarb Salad with Little Gems, Hazelnuts & Parmesan

Rhubarb has always been one of my favorite vegetables to work with. It’s light, tart and while we often see it in desserts, I think it lends itself really nicely a salad dressing! It’s like learning how to harness rhubarb’s tartness while also spreading the love with a bit of sweetness. Plus, it ends up looking bright pink, and I love pink things.

This rhubarb salad combines my favorite rhubarb dressing with a bunch of other simple elements to make a starter salad that really sings. Gone are the days of boring (and dare I say, bad??) side salads! No more! This salad is tangy, bright, salty and cheesy, but still light enough to crunch through on the way to starting your meal. If you are looking for an impressive dinner salad, look no further than this one.

How to turn rhubarb into a dressing

Now you can make the rhubarb dressing for this salad one of two ways:

The first is that you can blend everything together, which will give you the smoothest dressing and the lightest pink hue. I find this fun for when I want my dressing to have a lot of color and really cling to the leaves of the lettuce I’m using.

The second option is finely finely dicing all of your ingredients, then whisking them together with the vinegar, olive oil and honey, similar to a vinaigrette. This will give you a less thick dressing, with a look and texture that is more similar to a mignonette sauce. Italian salad dressing is also a good comparison, although this one will have a distinctly rhubarb flavor!

Ingredients you will need for the rhubarb salad dressing

This dressing only uses on stalk of rhubarb, but rhubarb is so tart that it will go a long way!

Here are all the ingredients you will need for this rhubarb salad dressing:

3/4 cup chopped rhubarb
2 garlic cloves
1/4 small shallot
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon oregano
Diamond Crystal kosher salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Above, you can see what it looks like right before it is going to be blended. But below, you can see the final product of the dressing!

But I added below another example of what the dressing would look like if you just finely chop the elements. It has a different look and a different taste, and I prefer it for salads with a heartier vegetable base – such as celery or fennel.

Ingredients you will need for the rhubarb salad

I have the dressing recipe and the salad recipe in separate boxes below, but both work together in harmony! The salad itself is simple, which is why I kept them separate, but each component has been perfectly thought out. Here are all the salad ingredients you will need:

1/3 cup Rhubarb Dressing (see recipe box below)
3 heads little gem lettuce
1/4 pound fresh strawberries
3 tablespoons hazelnuts
1 cup fresh mint leaves
2 ounces parmesan
Flaky salt

Why do I prefer little gems in my salads?

I love little gem lettuce. And it’s for a simple reason – no chopping needed, and they hold all your salad components in perfect little lettuce-sized cups. They are crisp like romaine, but less watery, and they are easy to clean, dry, toss together and come out looking supremely pretty. So yes, I’m a sucker for aesthetics, but I’m also a sucker for usefulness, ease and versatility. And a little gem has all of that!

Try to get and use your little gem lettuce on the same day though, it’s always better when it’s a fresh as possible.

Looking for similar salad recipes?

Here are a few other starter salads I love!

And that’s it for this Rhubarb Salad!

If you make it, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories and see what you all are making.

And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you.

Watch the recipe here

The video may not fully represent the recipe. For best results, follow the instructions as written.