Grilled Romaine Salad

This is awesome. I made this for a casual dinner party for 10, tripled the recipe and had no left overs! My guests couldn't wait to get the recipe. I've served it with and without the oven-dried tomatoes. I had more than 1/2 the oil left over from the tomtoes, so I use 1/2 as much now - cuts down on the fat content also.

I made this salad for New Year's eve. It was a big hit. Everyone thought the idea of grilling the romaine was very strange, and I was pretty hesitant myself. It turned out wonderful and I have made it a few times since. It is a bit complicated considering it is a salad but well worth it. I also topped it with sime sesame seeds.

This salad is wonderful with a small grilled filet mignon. I like to slice the steak and add it across the top. We also like it with a little parmasen cheese with crumbled garlic croutons. The dressing is very good. We don't use sugar, but sugar substitute (your choice) to help with my diabetic husband.

I did not like the grilled romaine lettuce (and neither did any of my guests) but I must keep the recipe in my file because the dressing is DELICIOUS.

This is simply the best salad I have ever eaten. I can't get enough of it. I personally omit all of the sugar as I find the balsamic sweet enough. I would give this a 10 if I could...

Something delicious and new! Really - if you enjoy salad, try this! I didn't have olive oil, so I rubbed a little butter, salt and pepper on the halves. Sinful, but amazing! I served the grilled romaine with garden fresh tomatoes and mom's old dressing mixture of ketchup and mayo drizzled lightly over the top. Perfect side for a grilled dinner. Trust me... this is a keeper!

I tried grilled romaine hearts at a restaurant and loved it so much I had to make it at home! I didn't use shallots for the vinaigrette - i just made a simple 2:1 balsamic vinaigrette with added honey, a little lemon juice, garlic, and italian seasoning. I topped the hearts feta cheese and red onion. I know this isn't the recipe but I still wanted to put up a review. Also, I don't find it necessary to put the olive oil on the lettuce before grilling - it's just added calories, the lettuce is fine on it's own. A lot of the bitterness in the thicker parts of the leaves go away with cooking.

Amazing. Thank you for this great recipe!

A bit of work for a salad, but excellent and worth the effort.

Fantastic!! I had serious doubts, but went ahead with grilling the romaine and it was simply outstanding. My family loved it :) The slow roasted tomatoes were divine too.

This was so simple and so delicious. I rubbed the romaine wiht olive oil and then made a bruschetta topping with plum tomatoes, red onion, basil and balsamic vinegar. We topped the grilled romaine with this and added some fresh grated parm cheese. My mom, dad and husband were hesitant about eating "cooked salad" but raved about it! This is a keeper

The tomatoes were excellent as was the dressing, which I will use on other salads. Husband couldn't say enough about the tomatoes, but didn't care for the romaine. As other reviewers mentioned, the amount of olive oil for the tomatoes was too much, but once I removed them from the oven and the oil was cool, I rubbed some of the excess oil on the romaine before grilling. EXCELLENT!! Thanks for sharing a really unique recipe.

This was very good. It was nice to have something a little different. The oil in the dressing was a bit to much....so I dropped it to 3/4 of a cup and it was perfect! We will have this again.

I am giving this 4 stars based just on the tomatoes and dressing alone. The actual grilled romaine lettuce was just okay but based on the end result I wouldn't bother with that step next time. The tomatoes were to die for! I threw in a few garlic cloves and ended up mashing them up for the "great garlic bread" recipe on this site. The dressing was really good too. I added the juice of 1 lemon as I felt it needed more acid to balance out the oil in the recipe. Very good overall.

A great recipe, easy, fast, elegant, incredibly tasty. Thank you

amazing what the "char" does to the lettuce! amazing.

my boyfriend was looking at me very strange when i was grilling the romaine on the grill last night... but, the end result was quite delicious. although, he did say, "it tastes like the lettuce on a burger on the grill." ha. the dressing I thought was fantastic. I didn't use anywhere near as much oil as the recipe called for. I also was short on time so i finished the tomatoes off on the grill after they were in the oven for maybe an hour. sprinkled with asiago cheese and served on a platter the presentation was quite nice - i wish i took a picture...

For now, I am only rating the dressing for this salad, although I plan to try the salad very soon. I made 1/2 the recipe of dressing and I used it on Balsamic Chicken and Fresh Mozzarella, also from this site, and it was delicious! I used 1 green onion because I didn't have a shallot, but otherwise followed the recipe. Remember when using balsamic vinegar, the better the balsamic, the sweeter it will be. So if your balsamic hasn't been aged very long and isn't as sweet, try adding a little brown sugar to taste. Really helps!

I haven't made the entire salad yet, but I did make the dressing. At first I thought it just OK, but after it sat for a day, it was better. It gets very thick, so on the third day I added a splash of red wine, to thin. We really like it, and two very picky older eaters thought it was good.

I had a similar salad at a nice restaurant when visiting Miami, and had always wanted to try this at home. This was very good. I cut down considerably on the olive oil in the recipe - I only used 1/4 cup for the roasted tomatoes (which were wonderful) and probably a 1/2 cup for the dressing (which was the best balsalmic dressing I've ever had). Otherwise I used the amounts called for. Also, the romaine definitely cannot stay on the grill over high heat for 5-10 minutes. I put it on, flipped it almost immediately, and took it off. Just enough to get a nice char on the leaves, but it was probably less than a minute or two total. Everyone enjoyed this salad, and one person even asked for the recipe.

This is a wonderful recipe. I used fresh rosemary and thyme instead of dried and reduced the olive oil in the dressing by a whole cup and now I wouldn't change a thing! The dressing emulsified just fine with only 3/4 cup of olive oil. Try it -- you absolutely will not miss the extra oil.

Oh, My!! This was outrageously good! Hubby and I loved it, but, the kids wouldn't eat it. :) It is really different, & not as time consuming as it reads. I did use fresh rosemary. The dressing made up a huge amount...next time I'll only make a half or less of the recipe. However, it won't go to waste, it's a wonderful dressing for other salads.

This is a keeper.

great! I used pam instead of olive oil. The dressing was amazing!

The dressing was a bit too sweet for my taste, I prefer oil & vinegar with blue cheese crumbles. I also do not turn the romaine, just lay the cut side down and leave a very short time until it has grill marks. Turning or leaving it too long seems to take the crunch out of it.

This could be the best salad I've ever had. If it's not the best, it's certainly my new favorite. I took the advice of others and cut down on the olive oil in the dressing and used a good aged balsamic. Instead of brushing the romaine with plain olive oil, I used the mixture that the tomatoes were roasted in. I only grilled it for a few minutes and that's all it needed. This was truly delicious. I made it for Father's Day dinner and it was a huge hit at our table. It's so good that I'd like to give it more than 5 stars. I know I'll be making this again really soon.

This salad was delightful and made a wonderful presentation. Who ever said the tomatoes weren't worth the time is drastically WRONG. They are amazing.Although the dressing is thick, it is great.

I thought this recipe sounded interesting but it was not good & my husband said it loses all the nutritional value by cooking it. The only good part was the tomatoes, I did use that oil to marinate shrimp before putting on the BBQ.

Excellent!! Didn't have all the ingredients (shallots) & didn't want the oven on to make the tomatoes (because it's too hot). Improvised with onions in the dressing & decreased the olive oil significantly. Family loved it!! Will definitely make again!

aweful. the lettuce was wilted on the ouside and cold and crunchy inside, the overall taste was bland.

I didn't do the tomato part of this recipe because most of the family doesn't like roasted tomatoes unless I make soup with them. I had sundried tomatos if anyone really wanted them. I've never had grilled romaine before and this was a really tasty and different way to do a common vegetable. I cut the hearts in half lengthwise but I made the mistake of cutting off the hard end first and should have left it on so it would hold the heart together better on the grill. No matter, it still turned out great but my poor husband was chasing romaine leaves all over the grill. I brushed the hearts with EVOO and freshly ground sea salt and black pepper. It was all I could do to keep from eating them before they hit the grill! The dressing was very easy, thicker than I thought it would be but probably because I used a little less olive oil than called for. It was very good and I love the balsamic and shallot flavor in dressings. It made a lot more than I would put on a single salad so, I have plenty left to use on other salads. My son dipped his grilled chicken in the dressing and thought that was good. It would probably make an excellent marinade too. I'll be grilling more romaine in the future, it's a nice alternative to regular old salad.

Thanks Jennifer--I love everything about this salad. Rarely do I stick to a recipe without changing it to suit my family's taste, but this one is a winner as is! Thanks for sharing it.

The calorie count HAS TO BE wrong for this recipe. Sounds yummy, but I agree, way too much olive oil.

I had never eaten grilled lettuce before, but boy is it yummy! I also grilled the tomatoes (on an indoor grill pan). I loved this salad! I would change the dressing though, too much vinegar covered up the rest of the flavors. I would cut that in half. Otherwise, yum num!

The dressing was perfect (not too tart). I used fresh tomatoes, feta cheese and real bacon bits. My company gave it a "10". Yummy!

A good recipe and a nice twist on the basic salad. I didn't add the herbs or tomatoes to mine, but drizzled the basalmic vinegar glaze over the top and added toasted sliced almonds.

Grilled lettuce......who thought this up? I used all the stated ingredients, but changed the cooking method for the tomatoes. I marinated the tomatoes in the spices, oil & sugar, but I grilled them rather than roasted to save on time. The dressing is tart, but we like the taste of balsamic vinegar. Put the grilled romaine, grilled tomatoes, and dressing together and you have a delicious, interesting salad. I will be making this one again.

Made it almost xactly as recipe said, everyone loved it. Only thing I did differently was cut romaine hearts lengthwise, leaving stalk intact. Rubbed olive oil and salt and pepper on all sides and grilled on all sides and still stayed crisp. Didnt have shallots so used red onion instead...next time I hope to find and try with shallots. Also, next time I might add parmesan to the tomatoes.

Our family loves this recipe. The tomatoes aren't worth the bother. Fresh grape/cherry tomatoes are better and more flavorful. The dressing is awesome.

I'm not a big lettuce fan, but this was pretty good! I didn't follow the recipe exactly, but it was there in spirit - instead of roasting my tomatoes, I added some chopped sun-dried tomatoes to my dressing, and I used a white balsamic vinegar with a splash of regular (for color). I grilled the lettuce for a scant 3 or 4 minutes. I though it would be too wilted, but it still had some crunch to it. I'll probably do this one again this week, as I have an abundance of romaine thanks to a buy one, get one free sale! Thanks for sharing!

This salad is magical. But you HAVE to eat it fresh and RIGHT AWAY or the pixie demon magic will fade.

A truly wonderful salad. Great for those warm summer days when you are grilling out, etc. Try this recipe, you'll love it!!

Is there anyway this is really 1200 calories and over 100 grams of fat per serving? I grilled the romaine and used a different dressing (only due to the nutrition factor), added fresh parm, croutons, toms. I've had a similar dish before and loved the dressing. I must look into this a bit more.

We made this while camping, so we roasted the tomatoes in foil over the fire for 2 hours. I didn't have shallots available, so I substituted onions.

I made this, I roasted zucchini, tomato and mushroom , spooned over romaine and served with thin sliced new York strip! Awesome!!

Good dressing recipe.

I love the grilled romaine and the tomatoes are fantastic. I could eat the roasted tomatoes every day! I made the dressing according to the recipe with the exception of substituting zero calorie brown sugar sweetener. While the dressing tastes good, it is really strong and I was tasting it all night! In the middle of the night I had to get out of bed and gargle AGAIN to kill the shallot flavor. Still, the dressing was delicious and I will definitely make it again. Next time I will lessen the amount of shallots to one, and see if if that makes any difference.

added several slices of crisp bacon, crumbled along with crumbles blue cheese! Wow, hubby loved it.

We loved it & so did our guests. Kind of fun to cook the lettuce when friends have not heard of doing it before. The 4 stars are because I used the tomato recipe from this one, but the salad dressing recipe from Chef John's Grilled Romaine recipe.

All I can say is DO NOT substitute green onions in this recipe, or if you do then minimize the amount of green you use or it turns out WAY too bitter. I had to add a bit of honey and finally some strawberries to the food processor to try to combat the bitterness in the dressing. Not the fault of the recipe at all. I'll try it again with shallots.