Remember back in the 80s, this salad was on all of the trendy restaurant menus, and the really fancy places were making a really garlicky salad called a Caesar?
Oh how time has buzzed on by.
After forgetting about this salad for years, sort of the way that you push an old boyfriend out of your mind for ages, and then suddenly, start thinking about him again, I began craving this salad. Would I make it today? No, I don’t have bacon. Tomorrow? I must remember to buy red onions. On and on it went like this for a week or two, until I decided that it was time.
To revisit my past. At least my leafy green one.
I found Marion Cunningham’s recipe from “The Fannie Farmer Cookbook” in Saveur, tinkered with it, and changed a few things. Honey instead of sugar, for instance. Grapeseed oil instead of vegetable oil. I added sherry vinegar, cut back on the bacon and used thinly sliced red onions instead of shallots, because I found that the taste was milder.
Was it as good as I remembered?
Even better.
Wilted Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing
Makes 2 large or 4 small salads
INGREDIENTS
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 tablespoons sherry vinegar
sea salt
pepper
6 strips bacon
2 eggs
¼ pound (5 oz or 130 grams) baby spinach
10 white mushrooms, thinly sliced
¼ red onion, thinly sliced
⅔ cup (5.3 oz or 15.7 cl) grapeseed oil
WHAT YOU DO
1. In a jam jar, combine garlic, honey, mustard, lemon juice, sherry vinegar and salt and pepper. Let sit while you make the rest of the salad.
2. Cook the bacon, leaving 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease in the skillet. Put bacon on paper towels to drain.
3. Boil the eggs. Put two eggs in a saucepan, cover with cold water and a pinch of salt, and bring to a boil. When the water boils, turn it down to a simmer and set the timer for 10 minutes. Put the saucepan in the sink, run cold water over it, and take out the eggs. Peel and roughly chop.
4. Put spinach, crumbled bacon, chopped eggs, mushrooms, and red onions in a large bowl and set aside.
4. Make the dressing. Add the 2/3 cup grapeseed oil to the jam jar and shake. Turn heat to medium-low and reheat the bacon grease. When warm, pour the jam jar dressing into the skillet, stir, and when hot, pour over the salad and toss.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
My Mom used to make a warm bacon dressing. For some reason, when we had home-grown lettuce from our garden in the summer, she always made warm bacon dressing for it. I love the eggs in your salad. Pretty and delicious!
I foresee a time in my near future (maybe a couple of weeks or so down the road) when I try this recipe for myself. Plus, your photo makes it look too good to resist.
I LOVE spinach salads. You see them everywhere around here because, as you say, they’re classic. One of my favorite things – made even better if the dressing has a nice, vinegary kick!
I’ve started making spinach salad a lot. I make a dressing similar to yours but with goat cheese melted down into the dressing. Gives it a great tangy flavor:
6 oz goat cheese, cut into chunk
1/4 red onion diced
6 strips quality bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/4 cup rice vinegar
3 tblspn brown sugar
salt & pepper
1 glove of garlic, crushed and chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup of water
In a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat add the olive oil and bacon and cook bacon until about 3/4 done. Scoop out the bacon and let it drain on a plate lined with a paper towel. Keep about 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat in the pan.
Add the onions and garlic to the pan, cook until the onions are soft. Add the vinegar and brown sugar. Cook for about 2 minutes over medium heat (Until the sugar is all dissolved). Add the goat cheese and 1/2 the cooked bacon. Stir and cook until the goat cheese is all melted. Add salt and pepper to taste at this point. If the dressing is too thick then stir in the water and maybe add a little more olive oil to thin it. You want it kinda loose. It will thicken as it cools.
Trey: LOVE the goat cheese add. I start to worry that I love goat cheese too much – it appears in way too many of my recipes, I fear. Also love that you used rice vinegar, another secret to wonderful, light vinaigrettes, I’ve found. Thank you so much for sharing this. I can’t wait to make this salad a la Trey!