CLASSIC WEDGE SALAD

Classic Wedge Salad

Many, many years ago, my French Club went to a wonderful little French restaurant in downtown Minneapolis - Chateau de Paris...  It was a magical night for a group of romantic young teenagers!   The girls all wore velvet dresses, the guys wore suits, and we had to order our meal in French, and speak ONLY French during the entire six-course candlelit dinner.  There was classic French music playing in the background, and the entire evening was pure MAGIC!  We started off dinner with a crock of French Onion Soup, topped with golden croutons and melted cheese, and then moved on to our second course - classic Wedge Salad.  And I'm telling you, we thought we were the classiest ever!

In a world ruled by kale salad, the iceberg wedge salad should be obsolete.  But there's a reason why this hunk of supercrisp iceberg lettuce, cloaked in tangy blue cheese dressing and topped with everything from crispy bacon to crumbled eggs, avocado and dried cranberries keeps showing up at all the finest little French restaurants and American steakhouses!

Classic Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing & Caramelqued Bacon

Make sure, before you even get to compiling your amazing salad, that you let your iceberg lettuce sit in the back of your freezer for a little while. It will only need a few minutes, but it’s an important key to giving that crunchy, crisp texture that is so iconic of a wedge salad.

As if your salad wasn’t impressive enough, just imagine what your dinner guests will have to say when they find out you even made the Blue Cheese Dressing and Caramelqued Bacon yourself.  These two things will take your classic wedge salad to the next level, you Master Chef!

Classic Wedge Salad with Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing & Bacon Bits

​And although the classic is, well, classic, you can always shake things up with a new trick or two.  Try cutting your iceberg lettuce in a disc rather than a wedge. This still gives you a cool way to serve your salad but with an unexpected twist.  Also, cutting your salad in a disc shape makes it a lot easier to clean your lettuce and gives you a flat, even surface on which to put more of your yummy toppings.

​Any way you slice it, this is a wonderful salad all by itself, or alongside your favorite dinner.  Add some caramelized pecan bits and some extra blue cheese crumbles, and everyone will be SO HAPPY!  There are never any empty plates when I make this!

Classic Wedge Salad

Originally posted March 2012, Rewritten and reposted September 2017.