The BEST Family Favorite Salad recipe! If at that place is 1 salad recipe you lot ask in your recipe box this is it, it’s my family unit’s favorite! It’sec made with fresh romaine lettuce, 2 kinds of cheese, flavorful bacon, sugariness grape tomatoes, crunchy toasted almonds, crisp croutons, and it’second all tossed amongst a fresh, vivid lemon vinaigrette.
Family Favorite Salad Recipe!
This is one of those recipes that has been inwards my family for probably 20+ years. My aunt made it at nearly vacation get-togethers, and so my sister started making it for merely about every party too straightaway it’s simply become the #ane requested salad in my family unit.
You simply tin’t go wrong alongside that BLT flavour combination! Plus this salad has the perfect blend of all the best textures.
I’ve made a few modifications to the original recipe. For case, it calls for vegetable oil as well as I similar to role low-cal olive crude oil (I intend it has a amend season in addition to it’s healthier), then I add together a niggling extra of this too that (similar those delicious toasted almonds).
And I likewise added dearest in addition to Dijon mustard to the dressing. These are natural emulsifiers so they assist bind the dressing together. They too add a dainty faint flavor that pairs good with the lemon and helps residuum that acidity.
One other affair I like to do when time allows is make homemade croutons (come across how to below). They merely gustation and so much ameliorate only sometimes it’second non then practical and so store-bought plant fine.
The real refer of the salad recipe is Salad de Maison just “The Best Salad” is only more than plumbing fixtures. No matter what you determine to phone call it y'all’ve got to endeavour this salad! It volition likely go the almost requested salad inward your family unit too!
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Ingredients Needed to Make This Family Favorite Salad:
For the Salad:
- Slivered almonds – stick alongside slivered almonds, not substitutes. Sliced almonds don’t accept the same crunch—they’re more than fragile, and some other nut doesn’t gustatory modality as skillful here.
- Bacon – role expert quality bacon. Sometimes the inexpensive brands are fashion also salty and the flavor isn’t equally practiced.
- Large romaine hearts – pre-chopped bags of romaine hearts can live used to salve time, only if fourth dimension allows freshly chopped tastes best.
- Grape tomatoes – ruby-red tomatoes work slap-up as well.
- Swiss cheese as well as parmesan cheese – function freshly shredded cheese.
- Croutons – when using store-bought I use something similar Italian seasoned.
For the Dressing:
- Light olive crude oil – if preferred vegetable fossil oil or regular pure olive petroleum tin can live substituted.
- Lemon juice – exclusively use freshly squeezed lemon juice here, not bottled.
- Garlic – stick amongst freshly minced garlic.
- Dijon mustard – this helps bind the dressing together.
- Honey – this helps residual the tartness of the lemon.
- Salt and pepper – this dressing uses a fair total of each.
How to Make The Best Salad Salad de Maison:
- Make the dressing, chill: Add olive rock oil, lemon juice, garlic, dijon, together with honey to a jolt. Add salt together with pepper. Cover and seal amongst hat, shake to blend. If needed stir upwardly honey if it sticks to bottom of jolt. Chill inwards fridge patch yous ready the residue.
- Toast almonds: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread almonds into an even layer on a minor baking canvass. Bake inward preheated oven until but lightly golden brownish, almost vi – 10 minutes, tossing once halfway through toasting. Remove from oven, prepare aside to cool.
- Cook bacon: Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed eighteen by xiii-inch baking canvass alongside aluminum foil. Place bacon strips on baking sail in a unmarried layer. Bake inward preheated oven until browned together with almost crisp (they’ll should crisp upwardly fully in one case cooled), most thirteen – xviii minutes (time volition vary based on thickness of bacon).
- Drain excess fatty: Transfer bacon to a plate lined amongst newspaper towels together with permit cool. Once cool chop bacon into pocket-sized pieces.
- Prepare lettuce: Rinse lettuce under common cold H2O as well as go through a salad spinner (I take this i HERE) inward batches to dry good. Add lettuce to a big serving bowl.
- Toss salad ingredients: Add inwards almonds, bacon, tomatoes, Swiss cheese, and parmesan cheese. Shake dressing over again and so pour over salad, toss salad and so add together croutons in addition to toss once more. Serve right away.
How to Make Homemade Croutons:
- Cut hearty mean solar day-quondam staff of life into cubes nigh iii/4-inch, mensurate out four cups.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Place breadstuff pieces shut together on a rimmed eighteen past 13-inch then drizzle easy and evenly amongst two – 3 Tbsp olive crude, then toss to coat.
- Spread bread across baking canvass. Season alongside common salt together with pepper too more or less Italian seasoning (nigh 3/iv tsp).
- Bake inward preheated oven until aureate brown too crisp, tossing once halfway through, well-nigh fifteen – 20 minutes full.
- Cool and store leftovers inwards an airtight container inwards the fridge or freezer for longer shelf life.
Tips for Perfect Salad Every Time:
- Chill dressing. It thickens it up too helps keeps the cold salad cold. Want to take it one pace farther? Serve salad on chilled plates.
- Rinse lettuce. Most of the fourth dimension you lot’ll discover a fiddling põrnikas or debris inward there.
- Spin lettuce dry out inward a salad spinner. This is the best style to thoroughly dry lettuce leaves. If lettuce leaves are nonetheless wet dressing won’t cling to the leaves as well as assort of merely puddles at the bottom of the bowl.
- Use fresh grated cheese. The pre-shredded cheeses take a powdery cellulose coating and it doesn’t sense of taste as expert.
- If fourth dimension allows make homemade croutons.
- Serve forthwith subsequently you lot add together salad dressing, the dressing starts to wilt the leaves together with soak into the croutons too the salad gets sort of soggy.
How to Make this Family Favorite Salad in Advance?
Most of this salad tin be prepared inward advance but await to toss alongside dressing! This is what I make when preparing in advance:
- Cook the bacon, cool and chop, wrap inwards a newspaper towel and place inwards a purse only don’t seal completely as well as chill.
- Toast the almonds, cool too position inwards a container.
- Chop the lettuce, rinse in addition to spin dry out inward a salad spinner. Put inward the salad bowl, cover too chill.
- Shred cheeses, chill.
- The tomatoes I ordinarily like to expect to chop until most prepare to serve because tomatoes shouldn’t be refrigerated it alters their season.
Can I Halve or Double the Recipe?
Yes! This recipe tin can live halved for a pocket-sized family unit or doubled for a larger crowd.
How to Make this Family Favorite Salad a Main Dish?
Add grilled chopped chicken or shredded rotisserie chicken to the salad and telephone call it dinner!
10 More Salad Recipes You’ll Love:
- Broccoli Salad
- Caesar Salad
- Chicken Salad
- Cucumber Salad
- Egg Salad
- Fruit Salad
- Greek Salad
- Macaroni Salad
- Pasta Salad
- Potato Salad
The Best Salad Recipe Salad de Maison
Ingredients
- one cup slivered almonds
- ten oz bacon (ten slices)
- three big romaine hearts*, chopped into bite size pieces (from 22 oz, xviii oz one time chopped)
- 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
- 1 loving cup (four oz) shredded Swiss cheese
- ane/ii loving cup (1.iv oz) finely shredded parmesan cheese
- one ane/2 cups croutons
Lemon Dressing
- 3/4 cup low-cal olive crude**
- one/iii cup fresh lemon juice
- ii garlic cloves, minced
- i tsp dijon mustard
- 1 1/ii tsp dear
- iii/4 tsp table salt, or to sense of taste
- ane/ii tsp freshly earth black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- To make the dressing: Add olive rock oil, lemon juice, garlic, dijon too dear to a shock. Add table salt as well as pepper. Cover too seal alongside hat, milk shake to blend. If needed stir upward honey if it sticks to bottom of jolt. Chill inward fridge spell you ready residue.
- To toast almonds: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread almonds into an fifty-fifty layer on a minor baking canvass. Bake in preheated oven until simply lightly gilded brown, well-nigh 6 - ten minutes, tossing once halfway through toasting. Remove from oven, fix aside to cool.
- To fix bacon: Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed 18 past xiii-inch baking canvas with aluminum foil. Place bacon strips on baking sail inward a single layer. Bake inward preheated oven until browned as well as almost crisp (they'll should crisp up fully in one case cooled), well-nigh 13 - xviii minutes (time volition vary based on thickness of bacon).
- Transfer bacon to a plate lined amongst paper towels in addition to let cool. Once cool chop bacon into small-scale pieces.
- To cook salad: Rinse lettuce under common cold H2O as well as work though a salad spinner (affiliate link) inwards batches to dry out good. Add lettuce to a big serving bowl.
- Add inwards almonds, bacon, tomatoes, Swiss cheese, in addition to parmesan cheese. Shake dressing once again and then pour over salad, toss salad so add together croutons and toss over again. Serve immediately.
Notes
- *This is the eye more than crisp component part of romaine lettuce. You tin can commonly buy these at virtually grocery stores, if not you lot tin can substitute ii (9 oz) bags of pre-chopped romaine lettuce hearts or ane one/ii heads romaine lettuce.
- **Regular olive oil tin can be substituted it just has a more noticeable season. Vegetable crude plant besides for an fifty-fifty milder season.
Amount Per Serving
Calories 386
Calories from Fat 297
% Daily Value*