Cool and crisp, this Wedge Salad is made with Little gem lettuces, beets, tomatoes, radishes, fresh herbs, and coconut bacon, topped with Creamy Gorgonzola dressing.
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.
John Muir
The classic wedge salad gets a little modern upgrade here with little gem lettuce replacing traditional iceberg lettuce and the addition of beets, tomatoes, radishes, herbs, and coconut bacon, topped with cool, creamy Gorgonzola Dressing. Delicious, crunchy, and refreshing- it makes for a refreshing light dinner, or a tasty side dish- served alongside grilled tofu, grilled steak or grilled chicken.
Don’t you just love a good wedge salad? It’s funny how I have come to crave these! For me, it is a texture thing- cool crisp lettuce lavishly drizzled with creamy dressing and all the crunchy bits. Such a pleasureful mouth experience!
Ingredients in Wedge Salad
- Lettuce– Here, we are using Little gem lettuces instead of the traditional iceberg wedges, but romaine lettuce, romaine hearts, a head of iceberg lettuce or any other crisp, sturdy lettuce that will hold up to the dressing will work!
- Veggies: This is where it gets fun! Add vine-ripened tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, red onion, crunchy radishes, beets, salad turnips, grated carrots, green beans, snow peas, or cucumber.
- Fresh Herbs: herbs add such a lovely freshness to the salad flat- look for flat-leaf parsley, chives, fresh dill, basil, scallions, or tarragon.
- Salad Dressing: A rich and creamy dressing is traditional here and works so well with the cool, crunchy lettuce and veggies. yes, it is rich, but we consider this salad “an entree”. We love this Creamy Gorgonzola Dressing or Blue Cheese Dressing – feel free to make your own or use store-bought. Of course, we really love making homemade! Vegans could use our Vegan Ranch Dressing! This Dilly Ranch is nice too.
- Optional Toppings: Let’s get wild! Bacon Crumbles or our new favorite Coconut Bacon, Crunchy Salad topper, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, sourdough croutons, toasted seeds (pumpkin or sunflower), nuts (toasted hazelnuts, etc.), blue cheese crumbles or gorgonzola cheese crumbles.
How to make Wedge Salad
Step One: Cook the Beets ( if using).
Roast or blanch beets until tender, peel under running cold water, and slice. Chill! You can do this ahead so the beets are really good and cold. Or nowadays, you can buy precooked beets for even faster prep!
Step Two: Make the Dressing
Whisk the Gorgonzola dressing ingredients together. We’ve used gorgonzola crumbles, mayonnaise, sour cream (or buttermilk) vinegar, fresh garlic, chives, salt and black pepper, and a splash of Worcestershire sauce. For an extra kick, you add horse radish! The gorgonzola dressing is best served COLD, so be sure to make it ahead and chill it. You could also make homemade Blue cheese dressing.
Step Three: Prep the veggies.
Halve or quarter the little gem lettuces. If using iceberg lettuce, remove the outer leaves, cut them into quarters, and remove the stem. If using romaine lettuce, split it in half and remove the stem if it is tough.
Prep your veggies, cutting them into bite-sized pieces. Chop the herbs.
Step Four: Assemble the Wedge Salad.
You can either plate the salad on individual plates or toss it all in a big bowl.
To plate individually– lay the lettuces down on a plate and dress with the gorgonzola dressing. Arrange the beets, tomatoes, herbs and radishes, and optional coconut bacon crumbles over the top and drizzle with a little more dressing. Season with fresh black pepper.
Alternatively, serve in a large bowl. Toss lettuce with the dressing first, then add the remaining ingredients and toss again, adding more dressing as needed.
So much flavor happening here!
Expert Tips
- Make sure everything is COLD. Lettuce, dressings, veggies!
- This salad is all about texture! Crispy toppings elevate- whether it be traditional bacon crumbles or our coconut bacon.
- Add something nutritious- the salad can handle this. We love adding beets and radishes but mix it up, use what you have.
What to serve with a Wedge Salad
Hope you enjoy this- let us know what you think in the comments below and have a beautiful week!
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Wedge Salad Recipe
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 45
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 4
- Category: salad, summer
- Method: tossed
- Cuisine: northwest
Description
Cool and crisp Wedge Salad made with little gem lettuce, beets, tomatoes, radishes, herbs and coconut bacon, topped with Creamy Gorgonzola dressing.
Ingredients
Units
- 3–4 baby little gem lettuces, romaine hearts or 1 large head of iceberg lettuce
- 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
- 2 cups beets, roasted or blanched, chilled, diced, or cut into wedges
- 1 cup sliced radishes (or cucumber)
- 1/8 cup very finely sliced red onion, optional
- 1/2 cup coconut bacon (see notes) or bacon crumbles (or sub vegan bacon bits)
- 1/4 cup fresh herbs- parsley, chives, basil, dill, scallions or tarragon
- Gorgonzola crumbles
Gorgonzola Dressing:
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 1/4 cup sour cream (or buttermilk)
- 1/2 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese (2 ounces)
- 1 small clove of garlic, finely minced or grated
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot or onion
- 1 tablespoon vinegar- Apple cider, red wine or white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tablespoons chopped chives
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Black Pepper to taste
- Optional: add a 1/2-1 teaspoon horseradish for a little kick.
Instructions
- Cook (roast or steam) the beets and chill. Peel and either slice or dice.
- Make the dressing: Mix all dressing ingredients in a small bowl and immediately refrigerate. You want the dressing to be really cold! Feel free to make it ahead!
- Assemble: When ready to serve, cut the little gems into halves or quarters and place on individual plates. (If using iceberg lettuce, remove the outer leaves, cut into quarters, and remove the stem. If using remain hearts, cut in half, remove stem.) Pour some of the chilled gorgonzola dressing over the top, add the veggies and herbs, and a little more dressing, and top with bacon or coconut bacon and gorgonzola crumbles and any other optional toppings and serve immediately.
- (Alternatively, feel free to make a big bowl of salad -toss the wedges with the dressing, coating well, then add the veggies, fresh herbs. Toss again, adding more dressing as needed. Top with coconut bacon and gorgonzola crumbles and any additional toppings.
Notes
Optional Toppings: avocado, hardboiled eggs, toasted seeds or nuts, salad topper.
The key to this salad– is making sure the salad is very cold and every ingredient is chilled. You can make the dressing and beets ahead. I like to use my instant pot for steaming beets to keep the kitchen cool in summer.
Any leftover dressing will keep 7 days in the fridge.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 495
- Sugar: 9.5 g
- Sodium: 1415.8 mg
- Fat: 35.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 10.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 34.1 g
- Fiber: 4.4 g
- Protein: 16.1 g
- Cholesterol: 48.8 mg
I made this salad the other day. I didn’t have the beets and oops…I used real crumbled bacon and we loved it. We had a bunch of cherry tomatoes from our garden and the gorgonzola dressing is so good!!
It sounds absolutely perfect!
Family favorite – like all of your recipes, a perfect balance of textures and flavors. We serve it with grilled chicken and just do regular bacon as garnish. Delicious and nourishing, and excellent with a crisp, dry white wine on the back deck!
So happy you enjoyed this Molly!
Just enjoyed this delicious salad for dinner. Thank you for another great recipe!
I thought the coconut bacon got lost a bit, but have been enjoying snacking on it separately. I didn’t include onion in the salad or extra cheese crumbles. Made some garlic bread to go with it. Hoping the leftovers are still good tomorrow!
So happy you enjoyed this Paula!
Hey Sylvia,
This looks amazing! Just FYI, I clicked on the coconut bacon link in the notes and it looks like the hyperlink is linking to the wrong page? Are you able to update by chance?
It should go to a Spinach Salad which has the coconut Bacon recipe in it. No?
Awesome recipe, will make it again for Mothers Day. Thank you for sharing this!
Thanks for your feedback. I’m wondering if it was because the bacon was refrigerated after being cooked? I’ll adjust the recipe. Thanks!!
that crispy bacon is pretty much killing me.. looks amazing!
Normally wedge salads always seem very huge and heavy to me, but this one looks perfectly portioned and the ingredients are all fresh and beautiful, you’ve sold me!
Love the addition of radishes and beets to the salad… two of my favorite things!
Mine too!