2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (chives, parsley, dill or basil)
For the dressing:
¾ cup sour cream
½ cup mayonnaise
1 shallot, finely diced
juice of ½ a lemon
1 tablespoon chopped fresh herb (parsley, dill, tarragon or chives)
1 cup blue cheese, grated or crumbled
kosher salt and black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon buttermilk
Takes ,
serves 4.
Instructions
Prepare lettuce: Using a sharp knife, cut the stem end off the lettuce and discard any blemished outer leaves. Cut the head into 4 wedges, 8 for smaller salads. Gently rinse each wedge under cool running water, then
Prepare dressing: Place the sour cream, mayonnaise, shallot, lemon juice, herbs and blue cheese into a medium bowl. Stir to combine. Add buttermilk to thin out consistency, if desired. Taste then season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Prepare bacon: Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a large baking tray with foil. Place bacon onto foil, laying rashers side by side in a uniform manner. Transfer to oven and bake for 15 minutes. Bacon should be browned but not too crispy. Remove from oven, pat with paper towel, then chop.
Assemble: Stand wedges onto an attractive platter or presentation plate. Spoon 1 or 2 tablespoons of dressing over each. Tuck tomatoes and radishes around the wedges. Sprinkle with red onion and pecans. Sprinkle with more blue cheese, bacon, salt and pepper. Garnish with chopped fresh herbs. Serve at table with extra dressing on the side.
Classic Wedge Salad
Ingredients
For the salad:
1 head iceberg lettuce
2 cups blue cheese dressing (recipe below)
6 bacon rashers
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
3-4 radishes, divided and thinly sliced
¼ red onion, thinly sliced
½ cup pecans, toasted and roughly chopped
crumbled blue cheese
kosher salt
black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (chives, parsley, dill or basil)
For the dressing:
¾ cup sour cream
½ cup mayonnaise
1 shallot, finely diced
juice of ½ a lemon
1 tablespoon chopped fresh herb (parsley, dill, tarragon or chives)
1 cup blue cheese, grated or crumbled
kosher salt and black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon buttermilk
Directions
Prepare lettuce: Using a sharp knife, cut the stem end off the lettuce and discard any blemished outer leaves. Cut the head into 4 wedges, 8 for smaller salads. Gently rinse each wedge under cool running water, then
Prepare dressing: Place the sour cream, mayonnaise, shallot, lemon juice, herbs and blue cheese into a medium bowl. Stir to combine. Add buttermilk to thin out consistency, if desired. Taste then season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Prepare bacon: Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a large baking tray with foil. Place bacon onto foil, laying rashers side by side in a uniform manner. Transfer to oven and bake for 15 minutes. Bacon should be browned but not too crispy. Remove from oven, pat with paper towel, then chop.
Assemble: Stand wedges onto an attractive platter or presentation plate. Spoon 1 or 2 tablespoons of dressing over each. Tuck tomatoes and radishes around the wedges. Sprinkle with red onion and pecans. Sprinkle with more blue cheese, bacon, salt and pepper. Garnish with chopped fresh herbs. Serve at table with extra dressing on the side.
Classic Wedge Salad
5 / 5. 3
Wedges of iceberg lettuce topped with a creamy blue cheese dressing, roasted bacon, radish, red onion and toasted pecans…
Need a simple salad that never fails to impress? This CLASSIC WEDGE SALAD is it!
You’re in good company, virtually everyone who visits WATC appreciates a delicious salad recipe. This one gets top marks for ease of preparation but we’re thinking it also gets an A++ for presentation. Like our COBB SALAD and SALAD NIÇOISE, this CLASSIC WEDGE SALAD always gets oohs and aahs whenever served. As you read on remember, you can serve it as a side dish or, as a light meal.
The entire recipe came to mind a few weeks back when we posted this recipe for a CREAMY BLUE CHEESE DIP. In the story notes, we explained that the dip makes a mighty tasty homemade salad dressing too. That got us thinking about favourite salads and a wedge salad just seemed so perfect.
What’s in a wedge salad? Here’s where this is going:
One head of iceberg lettuce gets divided into four or eight, leaving chunky compressed wedges of lettuce as the base.
Next, there’s the BLUE CHEESE DRESSING and if you’re not into blue cheese fear not, we have alternate dressing suggestions listed down below.
There’s bacon, oh yeah, that for your attention,
Finally, we round out this memorable flavour profile with sliced radishes, halved sweet cherry tomatoes, chopped red onion, toasted pecan and a sprinkle of chopped fresh herbs.
Here are a few more details to help you make this CLASSIC WEDGE SALAD like a pro.
INGREDIENTS
Every single ingredient needed to make this fresh salad is available at your local grocery store. So, no need to traipse across the town or city looking for stuff. Instead, simply add everything to your weekly shopping list and you’ll be good to go. Let’s add one tiny caveat: please do try to buy local whenever possible. Those hard-working growers and farmers work hard to bring those fresh herbs and veggies to market. Let’s show them our love by buying local. Thanks!
ICEBERG LETTUCE
ICEBERG LETTUCE, sometimes referred to as Crisphead, is the most popular type of lettuce consumed in the United States. We often see it served with a couple of tomato wedges, cucumber slices and maybe a few carrot sticks. It has a very mild flavour but still provides a number of essential nutrients and minerals. Looking at the nutrition information, the vitamins in this lettuce include calcium, potassium, vitamin C, and folate. Interesting lettuce fun fact: it gets its name from the way it’s transported in crushed ice. This type of lettuce doesn’t tolerate heat well, so keep it refrigerated until use.
In crafting this iceberg wedge salad we decided to give you options on whether to cut the head of the iceberg into 4 large wedges or 8 smaller ones. If serving a meal with more than 2 sides, go for smaller, but if the salad is paired with a main like BBQ’D RIBS, BEEF TENDERLOIN or our famous MIXED GRILL, go with larger. This is how it’s served in a steakhouse or restaurant. Make sure to follow our instructions where we remove the first few outer leaves and then, give each wedge a light rinse with cool water before laying them out on a paper towel to drain a bit. This helps revive the iceberg and get it crisp before you assemble the salad. Make sure to also cut the head of lettuce with a sharp knife. This will hopefully keep the wedges together and intact.
BLUE CHEESE DRESSING
We absolutely LOVE this CREAMY BLUE CHEESE DRESSING. go HERE to watch the VIDEO on how to make it or, instructions and quantities are listed down below. Made with mayonnaise and sour cream, the dressing is extra creamy. We also understand blue cheese isn’t for everyone. Please feel free to swap it out with addressing more to your taste like our beautiful BUTTERMILK RANCH DRESSING, this CAESAR DRESSING or this simple but tangy DIJON VINAIGRETTE. All our DRESSING RECIPES yield more dressing than a recipe calls for. So, whichever you decide to go with, you’ll have some leftovers. Serve the leftover dressing on the side in a little bowl when you present.
BACON
We agree, bacon really should be its own food group. For this recipe, we’re giving it a quick cook in the oven. Oven-roasting bacon renders the fat off the rashers evenly, allowing the meaty part of the bacon to brown and firm up slightly. During the testing of this recipe we discovered we enjoyed the bacon when it was just shy of crispy. So, the marching orders for use in this salad is, not too crispy. Bacon with a little bit of heavenly, fatty, drippings clinging to it gives this salad a fabulous flavour. Bacon for the win!
TOPPINGS
In figuring out this recipe we had a long list of potential vegetable toppings we could add. Contenders included corn, black beans, diced bell peppers, avocado, peas, asparagus and hard-boiled egg. Even fresh fruit like pear and apple wedges were gunning for inclusion. In the end, we went for colour and flavour with an eye to keeping the recipe as simple as possible. So for this CLASSIC WEDGE SALAD, we’re incorporating cherry or grape tomatoes and red onion for sweetness and colour and the radishes, for colour and zestiness. We also added toasted pecans to add a pleasing, buttery nuttiness and a fresh herb like parsley, chives, dill or basil for colour and aroma.
ASSEMBLE
For best results, assemble this salad right before you intend to serve. Start by placing the wedges of iceberg down on a beautiful presentation plate or platter followed by a a few tablespoons of the homemade blue cheese dressing. Then, nestle the tomatoes and radishes in and amongst the lettuce. Then, sprinkle with the remaining ingredients, some blue cheese crumbles and a bit of kosher salt and black pepper and you’re good to go. Some folks do serve a wedge salad with lemon on the side, up to you. Looks mighty wonderful, right?
SERVE
As mentioned above this wedge salad recipe can be enjoyed paired with a favourite main and the flavours meld well with everything from steak, pork chops and lamb to chicken and turkey and even fresh fish. Try it with our SEARED ARCTIC CHAR or our GRILLED WHOLE RAINBOW TROUT. Amazing.
The CLASSIC WEDGE SALAD, hopefully making an appearance on your dining table, soon!
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Ingredients
For the salad:
1 head iceberg lettuce
2 cups blue cheese dressing (recipe below)
6 bacon rashers
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
3-4 radishes, divided and thinly sliced
¼ red onion, thinly sliced
½ cup pecans, toasted and roughly chopped
crumbled blue cheese
kosher salt
black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (chives, parsley, dill or basil)
For the dressing:
¾ cup sour cream
½ cup mayonnaise
1 shallot, finely diced
juice of ½ a lemon
1 tablespoon chopped fresh herb (parsley, dill, tarragon or chives)
1 cup blue cheese, grated or crumbled
kosher salt and black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon buttermilk
Directions
Prepare lettuce: Using a sharp knife, cut the stem end off the lettuce and discard any blemished outer leaves. Cut the head into 4 wedges, 8 for smaller salads. Gently rinse each wedge under cool running water, then
Prepare dressing: Place the sour cream, mayonnaise, shallot, lemon juice, herbs and blue cheese into a medium bowl. Stir to combine. Add buttermilk to thin out consistency, if desired. Taste then season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Prepare bacon: Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a large baking tray with foil. Place bacon onto foil, laying rashers side by side in a uniform manner. Transfer to oven and bake for 15 minutes. Bacon should be browned but not too crispy. Remove from oven, pat with paper towel, then chop.
Assemble: Stand wedges onto an attractive platter or presentation plate. Spoon 1 or 2 tablespoons of dressing over each. Tuck tomatoes and radishes around the wedges. Sprinkle with red onion and pecans. Sprinkle with more blue cheese, bacon, salt and pepper. Garnish with chopped fresh herbs. Serve at table with extra dressing on the side.
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