Recipes › Lettuce (Butterhead) › Butterhead Lettuce Tacos with Black Beans, Feta and Chipotle Lime Dressing
Butterhead Lettuce Tacos with Black Beans, Feta and Chipotle Lime Dressing
Crisp, cup-shaped butterhead leaves stand in entirely for taco shells here, cradling a punchy filling of smoky black beans, crumbled feta, quick-pickled red onion and a fiery chipotle lime dressing. It is fast, fresh and requires zero cooking beyond warming the beans — exactly what weeknight eating should be. The lettuce is not a substitute for something better; it genuinely makes these brighter and more refreshing than a hard shell ever could.
Lettuce (Butterhead) is in season now. More lettuce (butterhead) recipes, or see what to sow this month where you are.
Ingredients
- 2 Lettuce (Butterhead), outer leaves carefully separated and kept whole
- 2 tinned black beans, 400g tins, drained and rinsedor tinned kidney beans
- 2 tsp chipotle paste
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
- 1 red onion, halved and very thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 2 limes, juice of both
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 150 g feta cheese, crumbled
- 2 ripe avocado, stone removed, flesh sliced
- 20 g fresh coriander, leaves picked
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
Contains: milk, sulphites.
Method
- Quick-pickle the red onion first so it has time to mellow: combine the sliced red onion with the red wine vinegar, caster sugar and a pinch of salt in a small bowl. Toss well and leave to sit while you prepare everything else — at least 10 minutes.About 2 min
- Make the chipotle lime dressing: whisk together the chipotle paste, lime juice and extra virgin olive oil in a small bowl or jug. Season with salt to taste. The dressing should be punchy and slightly thick.About 2 min
- Heat the 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium frying pan over a medium heat. Add the sliced garlic and cook for 1 minute until just golden. Add the drained black beans, ground cumin and smoked paprika. Stir everything together and cook for 5–6 minutes, pressing about a quarter of the beans lightly with the back of a spoon to create a rough, creamy texture while leaving most of them whole. Season generously with salt.About 8 min
- Separate and arrange the butterhead lettuce leaves on a large platter or board. The cupped leaves act as the taco shells, so look for the biggest, most cup-shaped ones from the outer layers of the heads.About 3 min
- Spoon 2–3 tablespoons of the warm black beans into each lettuce leaf. Top with a few slices of avocado, a pinch of the pickled red onion, a crumble of feta and a few coriander leaves. Drizzle each taco generously with the chipotle lime dressing and serve immediately.About 3 min
Tips
- Do the pickling step first — even 10 minutes transforms raw red onion from harsh to bright and pleasantly sharp. Longer is better if you have it.
- Resist the urge to overfill each leaf. Two tablespoons of beans per leaf keeps them holdable and means every bite has the right ratio of crisp cool lettuce to warm filling.
- The chipotle lime dressing is the thing that ties it all together — be generous with it.
Ring the changes
- Add 200g of roasted sweetcorn kernels (charred in a dry pan) to the bean filling for extra sweetness and texture.
- For a vegan version, leave out the feta entirely or replace it with 150g of diced firm tofu tossed in smoked paprika and a little soy sauce.
Keeping it
The black bean filling keeps refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days. The pickled onion keeps for up to a week. The dressing keeps for 3 days in a sealed jar. Assemble lettuce cups only when ready to eat — filled leaves go soggy quickly.
In the app this recipe finds you
Log what you've picked and GrowMore CookMore matches it to 1,918 more recipes like this one, tells you what's ready before the frost gets it, and keeps the freezer honest. Free to start.
More from the same crop
A golden shortcrust pastry case filled with a creamy, savoury custard packed with slowly wilted butterhead lettuce and sweet leeks. Cooking the lettuce transforms it entirely — the leaves collapse into something silky, rich, and deeply flavoured, a world away from a salad bowl. This is the kind of thing you make when your garden is giving you more butterhead than you know what to do with.
1 h 30 min · medium · Lettuce (Butterhead)A light, vibrant Japanese-inspired salad that takes less than fifteen minutes from garden to table. The miso and ginger dressing has real depth and a pleasant funkiness that plays brilliantly against the mild, sweet butterhead leaves. Crispy sesame seeds and a scattering of radish make this feel like a considered dish rather than a simple salad.
12 min · easy · Lettuce (Butterhead)A bold, North African-inspired salad where chickpeas are fried until golden and crisp, then tossed with wilted butterhead leaves, preserved lemon, and a smoky harissa dressing. The butterhead lettuce does something wonderful here — it half-wilts in the heat of the pan, turning silky and sweet while holding just enough structure to carry the chickpeas. Ready in under 25 minutes and substantial enough to eat as a main.
24 min · easy · Lettuce (Butterhead)
Allotment keeper in the North East of England, the voice behind the Tony C Smith YouTube channel, and the gardener who built GrowMore CookMore. Club numbers on this page update as members log their plots. Last updated 4 April 2026.