Types Of Greens To Use For This Salad
Growing up, my great-grandmother would serve up a wilted salad with a hot bacon dressing over whatever lettuce was in season. This salad was served up during the spring and summer. The flavor of the bacon dressing was out of this world when drizzled over a pile of greens.
This recipe is perfect for salad greens that are a little bitter. Often this salad is made with spinach , but you can use romaine or iceberg lettuce. It also works well with baby kale or even dandelion leaves early in the spring when the plants are small and the leaves are not too bitter.
Its also tasty to add in some endive, cooked mushrooms, or roasted red peppers.
How To Freeze Salad Dressings
The best way to freeze salad dressing is to make it into ice cubes. When the cubes are completely frozen, pop them out, place them in a freezer bag, press out the air, seal, and return to the freezer.
To freeze a large batch of salad dressing, pour it into a freezer-safe plastic container, leaving space at the top to allow for expansion.
You Need Spinach And Scallion Salad With Hot Bacon Dressing In Your Life Becaus
You need Spinach and Scallion Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing in your life. Because Hot Bacon Dressing! I mean, really, do we need to go any further in to reasons? Its spinach tossed with dressing thats made in the bacon skillet, with cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, pure maple syrup and just a little bacon fat. Dont worry, I know it sounds super indulgent, but its only 274 calories per serving, low carb, paleo and gluten-free.
Recipe is below! Click save
INGREDIENTS8 cups spinach, torn into bite sized pieces if large, cleaned and spun dry6 to 8 scallions, cleaned and chopped6 slices raw bacon, chopped3 tablespoons cider vinegar2 teaspoons coarse Dijon mustard2 teaspoon pure maple syrup, dark or amber½ teaspoon salt, or to taste½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil5 radishes, thinly sliced
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What To Put In A Spinach Salad
Aside from the spinach, lots of spinach salad recipes can have sliced, hard-boiled eggs, any kind of cheese, or even sliced or dried berries like cranberries or strawberries. Even thinly sliced pears would work in this recipe.
The real star here is the warm spinach salad dressing! It is the key to balancing the salty flavor of the bacon with the tender taste of spinach and the crunch of the almonds. Or try Strawberry Salad Dressing for a different taste! Add the rest of the ingredients and youre ready to serve!
Spinach Salad With Warm Bacon Dressing
This spinach salad combines crispy thick-cut bacon, mushrooms, and soft-boiled eggs with a warm bacon vinaigrette. Pair with a rotisserie chicken and dinner is done!
If theres one thing that gets everyone in my family circling the kitchen like sharks at dinnertime, asking Whatcha makin? its the smell of bacon sizzling on the stovetop. This spinach salad with crispy thick-cut bacon, boiled eggs, mushrooms, and a warm bacon vinaigrette pairs well with a store-bought rotisserie chicken or pan-seared salmon. Its also wonderful with potato leek soup. To save time, use pre-washed baby spinach, pre-sliced mushrooms, and even pre-cooked boiled eggs, if you like and pick up a fresh baguette to round out the meal.
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S For Making Spinach Salad With Warm Bacon Dressing
Because the warm bacon dressing will wilt the spinach when added to the salad its important to prep all of the ingredients in advance. Once the dressing is added you will want to serve immediately.
- Prepare and cool the hard boiled eggs. .
- Peel the eggs and slice with a sharp knife, or use an Egg Slicer for easy, perfectly even slices
- Chop the cooked bacon in bite sized pieces
- Wash, dry and trim the long stems from the baby spinach leaves, and set aside
- Peel and cut the red onion in half. The best way to do this is to cut it stem to root. Then slice one half of the onion in half moon slices
- Clean, dry, and cut off the rough woody stems of the mushrooms. Slice the mushrooms into bite size slices
- Toss all of the ingredients with the warm dressing and serve immediately
What Makes This Spinach Salad Wilted
Unlike most vinaigrette dressings, this warm bacon dressing is what will wilt the spinach leaves. The spinach leaves are gently tossed with the warm dressing which just barely wilts or cooks them. Because the leaves are delicate, its best to serve it immediately as it wont hold up well for a long period of time.
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How To Make Warm Bacon Dressing
- Cook bacon, remove from pan, and let cool on a paper towel for the salad
- Reserve 4 Tablespoons of bacon fat
- In a small saucepan add the reserved bacon fat, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, and Worcestershire sauce
- Heat over low and whisk until all of the sugar has dissolved
- Season to taste with salt and pepper. Some bacon is saltier than others so the amount of salt you add will vary
- Let dressing cool slightly while prepping the salad greens
- This dressing can be prepared up to 2 days in advance, chilled, and reheated immediately before serving
Can You Make Spinach Salad Ahead Of Time
The short answer is no. BUT, you can prep all the components ahead of time. The assembly will take just minutes to throw together. You can hard boil the eggs, fry the bacon, and slice the onions ahead of time. Store all the ingredients in covered containers in the fridge. Buying a package of pre-washed baby spinach will also save time. With the reserved bacon fat, make the vinaigrette. Heat the bacon dressing just before serving.
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Spinach Salad With Hot Bacon Dressing
This spinach salad with black-eyed peas is a twist on one of my favorite culinary traditions: serving beans and greens on New Year’s Day. Greens represent paper money and beans symbolize coins. Here I present these ingredients in salad form, which is a great delivery system for hot bacon dressing.
- ½ pound sliced bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch strips
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- cup apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- 1½ tablespoons Dijon mustard
- cup bacon drippings
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 1 pound baby spinach leaves
- 1 can black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
- 12 white button mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 1 cup sliced cherry tomatoes
How To Make Spinach Salad With Warm Bacon Dressing
- Make the warm bacon dressing. Whisk together bacon drippings with browned bits, olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon and honey. Season with salt and pepper.
- Let that simmer over medium heat for 1 minute.
- Stir in crumbled bacon and allow to cool slightly.
- Toss together spinach, bacon, mushrooms, red onion, and Swiss. Drizzle with warm bacon dressing and toss.
- Add eggs and croutons to top and serve.
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Warm Spinach Salad Ingredients
The key to creating a delicious salad lies in the quality of the ingredients. Always use the freshest produce you can find, especially when it involves spinach. As it ages, spinach develops a rancid smell, and even before that, it gets wilted and flimsy. Neither of those are what you want in your spinach salad. Next youll need bacon. This isnt the time for thin bacon. Go for a nice thick-cut bacon. Add wafer thin red onion, hard boiled eggs and sliced mushrooms.
Warm Bacon Spinach Salad
Fresh spinach needs dressed up to be something memorable.
Made with rich hard-boiled eggs, crispy bacon, sharp picked onions, and a warm salty dressing, this recipe for Spinach Bacon Salad is CERTAINLY memorable.
This salad is full of texture from the crispy bacon to the creamy eggs. It is rich, yet fresh and balanced–truly one delicious bite!
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Easy Hot Bacon Dressing Recipe
No spinach salad is complete without an easy Hot Bacon Dressing recipe to top it off. This simple Bacon Vinaigrette is quick to whip up and a great way to use up those leftover bacon drippings from your morning breakfast.
Were big bacon fans here and, lucky for us, I always keep a good stash of bacon in the freezer at all times. Aside from the usual bacon on Saturday mornings, we love to use it to elevate the flavors of our favorite recipes like a weekday meatloaf.
Since Im not the biggest fan of salads, I love to add bacon to my greens anyway I can and that includes dousing them in this easy Hot Bacon Dressing. Its tangy, sweet and rich with bacon flavor.and its ready in minutes.
My first encounter with Hot Bacon Vinaigrette was in the south on a simple spinach salad. The flavor is out of this world when drizzled over a pile of greens but its a classic on spinach salad with chopped egg and sliced mushrooms. Its the perfect homemade salad dressing to put on ALL THE THINGS.
How To Make Spinach Bacon Salad
- Begin this recipe by prepare hard-boiled eggs using my recipe for Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs or on the stovetop.
- Once the eggs have been prepared and chilled in an ice bath, begin to assemble the salad.
- Soak the sliced red onions, if using, in water and allow them to soak for 5-10 minutes while preparing the bacon. This will help to down their flavor so they don’t overwhelm the salad.
- Place the bacon in a dry skillet over medium-high heat and pan-fry the bacon until it is nice and crispy. Once the bacon is crispy, remove it from the frying pan and place it on paper towel-lined plate to absorb the excess grease. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the bacon grease to use for the Warm Bacon Dressing. Alternatively, you can bake the bacon, just be sure to still reserve 1 tablespoon of the drippings.
- While the bacon grease is still warm, add in mustard, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup and pepper and whisk well. Taste and season with additional salt if needed.
- To assemble the salad, drain the onions, peel and slice the eggs, and crumble the bacon. Toss with the spinach and then add the Warm Bacon Dressing to the salad, while still warm and toss. This will slightly wilt the spinach.
- Serve immediately.
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Recipe Tips And Variations
- Yield: This recipe makes 2 ½ cups of dressing .
- Make ahead: The bacon can be fried up to 24 hours in advance. Cover and refrigerate the bacon and rendered fat separately. Reheat the bacon grease in a skillet and proceed with the recipe. The bacon can be reheated in the microwave or oven .
- Serving: This recipe makes enough dressing for 1 pound baby spinach, romaine lettuce, or other greens. If you use less than ½ cup sugar, youll have less dressing. Hot bacon dressing is also delicious over shredded Brussels sprouts, blanched green beans, boiled potatoes, and wilted Spinach Salad .
How To Make Spinach Salad With Bacon
Before making the salad, youll need to boil the eggs. I love soft-boiled eggs , but hard-boiled eggs are equally delicious.
Begin by frying the bacon in a nonstick skillet, stirring occasionally, until crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. While the bacon cooks, start the dressing: in a large bowl, whisk together the vinegar, honey, mustard, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
When the bacon is done, use a slotted spoon to transfer the cooked bacon to a paper towellined plate.
Pour the bacon fat into a heatproof bowl, then return 4 tablespoons of the bacon fat to the skillet. Add the shallots to the skillet and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until softened, 1 to 2 minutes. Do not brown.
Add the bacon fat and shallots from the skillet to the vinegar mixture and whisk to combine.
Add the spinach and mushrooms.
Toss to coat evenly, then taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, if necessary.
Divide the salad between 4 plates or bowls evenly divide the egg and cooked bacon among them. Serve immediately.
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What Makes This Salad So Good
- The bacon has two purposes in this salad dressing! Crisp up pieces of bacon in a pan and use the bacon itself as a crunchy topping for your salad, and then use the bacon fat as the main ingredient to your delicious salad dressing.
- It really is full of flavor and extremely satisfying! Savory gorgonzola cheese, tangy apple cider vinegar, and a touch of dijon mustard make this spinach salad with hot bacon dressing super flavorful. And protein-packed additions such as hard boiled eggs and avocado will keep you full until your next meal.
- Its the perfect make-ahead lunch. I like to make the dressing and boil a few eggs at the start of my week and have this ready-to-go healthy lunch option waiting for me in the fridge!
Faq About Bacon Dressing For Spinach Salad
Is bacon fat good for you?
You might be interested to learn that bacon fat is higher in monounsaturated fat than butter. Unlike margarine, it also contains no trans fat . Read more about bacon fat.
What if I dont end up with enough bacon fat for the recipe?
Simple just add some olive oil until you reach the required amount.
Can you make bacon dressing in advance?
Yes, remove the bacon from the skillet when cooked and make the dressing in the same pan. Allow the dressing to cool to room temperature and transfer it to an airtight container. Store the bacon in a separate container.
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Best Ways To Serve Spinach Salad With Warm Bacon Dressing:
One of the things we love about this salad is the different options you have for serving. Here are our 3 favorite ways:
However you decide to serve this salad just keep in mind that once the dressing is added you will want to serve right away before the salad wilts too much!
Expert Tip:
We like to place our sliced onions in the warm dressing and allow the onions to soften slightly and soak in the bacon flavor while preparing the rest of our salad ingredients!
Where Can You Buy Hot Bacon Salad Dressing
I didnt think you could buy bacon dressing for spinach salad, but a reader pointed me to Wos-Wit, a company that makes Pennsylvania Dutch foods. However, the best salad dressing does not come out of a bottle but rather is made fresh just before serving.
This salad dressing actually gets cooked just before it is served, but dont worry, there is minimal cooking time, and this is an easy salad dressing to put together.
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Tips For The Best Spinach Salad With Warm Bacon Dressing
- Allow the bacon dressing to cool slightly before pouring it over the spinach salad, otherwise you run the risk of burning your mouth and/or wilting the spinach leaves.
- Use bacon that isnt flavored for the best results. You want a regular pork bacon for this recipe.
- Store the dressing and salad fixings separately in the fridge if you have leftovers. Otherwise the salad will wilt.
Killer Spinach Salads With Hot Bacon Dressing
Im about to convince you that this salad is dessert.
I mean, I guess it could totally be dinner. But do you see the words up there? KIL-LER. Not just because its delicious but its kind of loaded with wonderful things that your heart may not love.
Please sit back while I serve you a lovely plate of cholesterol. TOTALLY WORTH IT.
Heres the deal. This was Mother Lovetts favorite salad of all time. Okay minus the avocado and maybe add a few mushrooms. But this was HER salad. It was the salad that shed order every single time it was on the menu and also one that shed ask us to pick up for her as a treat.
And you know its not even about the salad. This post, these photos? They have nothing to do with this pile of spinach that I threw cheese and egg and avocado on top of. Oh no.
Its allllll about the dressing.
The bad news is that hot bacon dressing is quite possibly one of the least photogenic foods in the universe, right up there with meatloaf, gravy and all that jazz.
Apparently all things that taste fabulous look like garbage to the human eye.
Its also one of my moms favorite salads, if not her very favorite. If its on the menu, sometimes she will order a different salad and request the hot bacon dressing. And if Im being real, even though I might have said back in the day that the first salad I learned to love was a Caesar, THIS was most likely the first salad I ever forked into my mouth and actually enjoyed. Its ridiculously decadent and wonderful.
Yet.
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