This Wedge Salad recipe is a real classic, and for good reason!
Bright, crispy lettuce, homemade blue cheese dressing, sweet cherry tomatoes, and don’t you dare forget the bacon!
It’s the perfect side dish for a huge variety of mains, and it’s one of the easiest salads you’ll ever make.
Salads are one of our favorite side dishes. They’re healthy, tasty, and you don’t even need to cook them!
From classics like Caesar and Coleslaw, to salads from far away lands like Spanish Pipirrana and Asian Cucumber Salad, these fresh sides always find their way to our table.
This wedge salad is so simple, but trust me, it’s a keeper!
What is a Wedge Salad?
The wedge salad is a classic American side dish that has been around since at least the early 20th century. It’s generally considered to have originated in the United States, though the exact origins are a bit unclear.
The salad typically consists of a quarter head of iceberg lettuce (hence the name “wedge”), blue cheese dressing, bacon, tomatoes, and other optional toppings.
It rose to prominence in the 1950s and ’60s, when iceberg lettuce was the most popular type of lettuce in the U.S., and it’s often associated with steakhouse menus of that era.
Though it’s not as standard nowadays, as a wider variety of greens have become available, the wedge salad has experienced a bit of a renaissance in recent years.
Ingredients Needed
- Iceberg lettuce – Cut into quarters.
- Cherry tomatoes – Cut into small pieces.
- Bacon – Yes, please!
- Chives – Just a sprinkle.
- Blue cheese dressing – Blue cheese, mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon juice, buttermilk.
- Blue cheese – Some more for garnish.
Recipe Notes and Tips
A wedge salad is pretty simple, but a few tips can help you perfect it.
- Use Fresh and Crisp Lettuce: The key to a great wedge salad starts with the freshness of your iceberg lettuce. The leaves should be tightly packed and not wilted.
- Chill the Lettuce: For an extra-crisp bite, chill the lettuce wedges in the refrigerator for about an hour before assembling the salad.
- Wash the Lettuce Right Before Using: This maintains the freshness and crispiness of the lettuce. Pat it dry gently to avoid any soggy leaves.
- Use Homemade Dressing: Make your blue cheese dressing from scratch. It’s simple and the taste is so much better than store-bought.
- Keep Your Toppings Small: If the toppings are too big, they might be too heavy to stick to the dressing.
- Serve Immediately: A wedge salad is best served immediately after dressing to avoid the lettuce becoming soggy.
Easy Wedge Salad Recipe
1. Make the dressing: Combine all ingredients in a small bowl, breaking up the blue cheese with a fork. For more details, including the best types of blue cheese to use, see our Blue Cheese Dressing post.
2. Fry the bacon: Fry till it is nice and crisp. Once it has cooled a little, break it into crumbles.
3. Assemble the salad: On individual plates, place a wedge of iceberg lettuce. Drizzle generously with dressing, then garnish with cherry tomatoes, bacon, chives, and more crumbled blue cheese.
Serving Suggestions
This is one of the most versatile salads out there!
Try it with your favorite potluck foods like Grilled Chicken, Pork Chops, Shish Kabobs or BBQ Ribs.
It’s great alongside other nostalgic comfort foods like American Goulash, Salisbury Steak, Pot Roast, Chicken Fried Steak, and Chili.
Some other pairing ideas are Steak Bites, Chicken Cacciatore, Oven Fried Chicken, and Crockpot Buffalo Chicken.
Other Topping Ideas
As with any salad, you can easily add other ingredients to customize it. Here are some ideas:
- Croutons
- Cucumber
- Red onion
- Bell pepper
- Black olives
- Avocado
- Nuts like pecans or slivered almonds
Give this easy and classic wedge salad a try. It’s crisp, refreshing, and the perfect side dish to add to your repertoire.
Wedge Salad, on our Gypsy Plate… enjoy!
Try these other great salad recipes!
Antipasto Salad
Cowboy Caviar
Watermelon Salad
Israeli Couscous Salad
Greek Salad
Mexican Elote Salad
Vietnamese Chicken Salad
Cucumber Tomato Pesto Salad
Zucchini Carrot Salad
Wedge Salad Recipe
This classic Wedge Salad recipe is so easy and so good, with the best homemade blue cheese dressing. And it goes with just about anything!
Ingredients
Wedge Salad
- 6 slices bacon
- 1 head iceberg lettuce, cut into quarters with stem removed
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, diced
- 2 chives, finely chopped
Blue Cheese Dressing
- 3oz blue cheese
- 6 Tbsp mayonnaise
- 6 Tbsp sour cream
- 1.5 Tbsp lemon juice
- 6 Tbsp buttermilk
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients for dressing in a small bowl, breaking up the blue cheese with a fork.
- Fry bacon till it is nice and crisp. Once it has cooled a little, break it into crumbles.
- On individual plates, place a wedge of iceberg lettuce. Drizzle generously with dressing, then garnish with cherry tomatoes, bacon, chives, and more crumbled blue cheese.
- Serve immediately.
Nutrition Information
Yield 4 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 368Total Fat 32gSaturated Fat 10gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 19gCholesterol 53mgSodium 732mgCarbohydrates 9gFiber 2gSugar 6gProtein 13g
Nutrition information calculated by Nutritionix.
Welcome to GypsyPlate! I'm Alpana, former wordwide tour manager and professional caterer, now full time blogger. I love exploring cuisines from around the world, and my recipes have been featured on sites such as MSN, Parade, Brit + Co, CNET and AOL. You can explore my entire collection of sortable recipes in my Recipe Index or learn more about me here.
Get griddling! Try these Blackstone Recipes!
Never miss a recipe!
Join the GypsyPlate mailing list and get easy dinner recipes right in your mailbox. From homestyle comfort food to exotic dishes from around the world.