Heather says:
I’m on a salad kick. A friend sent me this recipe months ago and I’m sorry to report I just got around to testing tweaking it.
Wilted Spinach Salad with Candied Pepper Bacon 
Spinach salad:
- 6oz fresh baby spinach
- 1/2 sweet or red onion sliced thinly
- 1 granny smith apple cored and cut into bite size pieces
- 4 hard boiled eggs cut into wedges
- 7 slices candied peppered bacon
Toss ingredients in a large bowl, reserve some egg and bacon for garnish.
Candied Peppered Bacon
- 7 slices bacon
- 2 TBSP brown sugar
- fresh ground pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 425. Arrange the bacon in a single layer on a baking sheet and sprinkle with brown sugar and fresh ground pepper. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, watch closely. Drain on a rack, NOT on paper towels. . . trust me. Reserve drippings for dressing.
Dressing:
- 2 TBSP bacon drippings
- 3 TBSP balsamic vinegar
- 3 TBSP dijon mustard
- 4 TBSP brown sugar
In a microwave safe bowl whisk together the ingredients. Microwave covered on high for 1 minute, stir, microwave for an additional minute. Drizzle over spinach salad and toss to coat. Garnish the salad with the reserved bacon and eggs. Serve immediately.
Yields two main course salads or four side salads.
Grilled chicken would be a nice accompaiment for this dish.
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I’m so glad you liked it. I too, used balsamic last time I made this as I was out of the apple cider it called for. YUMMY bacon:)
The bacon is an interesting concept – I’ll look forward to trying it. Since the salad seems rather full of protein already (eggs, bacon), I would serve it with good bread or a potato dish and fruit.
so how was it? (still unsure on the idea of candying bacon…)
I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was tangy and sweet without being cloyingly so. The hot dressing didn’t feel greasy as I have encountered with other hot bacon spinach salads.
I will make it again. In the future I’ll probably toss in another apple, maybe some strawberries, and possibly another bag of spinach… depending on how hungry I am. With that in mind, I’d have to increase the amount of dressing a little.
I am soooo glad you posted this. it reminded me of an old family favorite tha hasn’t been made since my mom passed away 9 years ago….I’ll be making it this week now that you have jogged my menory. You use 1 small head of iceburg lettuce finely chopped, one medium onion finely chopped, one pound of bacon. Fry the bacon until crisp and cut or crumble into small pieces….poor off most of the bacon grease and save, saute the onions in the bacon greese left in the pan.
The dressing is made with 1 cup of Miracle Whip, 1 table spoon of sugar one table spoon of vinegar and one table spoon of the bacon grease that you saved. Beat all of those together and poor over the lettuce, bacon and onions…..not very good for your arteries…but tastes….wonderful!! Pam from South Bend
Sounds yummy . . . and fattening!
Thanks for participating in the Make it from Scratch carnival.
Karen
http://www.balanceindiet.com
Bacon make almost everything better! Yum!
that looks delicious!! as a child my mother would make a wilted spinach salad with a warm dressing that was delicious!! I must try this one.
I made this salad tonight and loved it, I will definitely make it again. One thing I did wrong was to cook the bacon way too long. For some reason I thought that it had to be crispy and kept cooking it past the recommended 15 min. I ended up with really hard bacon, kinda like eating hard candy. Luckily I didn’t break a tooth!
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