Spinach, Bacon, Mushroom and Swiss Cheese Salad

Do you have a salad that calls to you, and usually, you have all the ingredients in your refrigerator at any given time?  Spinach, Bacon, Mushroom and Swiss Cheese Salad is mine.  It does not matter how often I make this salad, I love it every time!

The secret for me is to take off the stems of the spinach.  The older I get, the more I really do not like them.  It makes a difference!  I don’t want those things hitting me in the face while I eat my salad.  If you have already cooked bacon bits, this salad takes about 10 minutes to put together and the salad dressing is one of those recipes you can use on so many other dishes.

How to Make Spinach, Bacon, Mushroom and Swiss Cheese Salad

1.  Cook or buy your bacon bits.  One of my favorite kitchen hacks is cutting the bacon before I cook it.  I take the whole pound of bacon out of the package and put it on a cutting board.  

Using a sharp knife, cut across all the bacon strips in 1/2 inch slices.  Put all these pieces in an already heated four quart sauce pan on the stove.  No need to use a frying pan where the grease splashes every where.  It takes about 15 minutes to cook the bacon.  While baking, stir the bacon occasionally.  

Get paper towels ready by folding two or three of them together.  Once the bacon is the color you like, use a slotted spoon and remove the bacon and place it on the paper towels.  Dispose of the bacon grease responsibly by pouring it into a heat resistant dish.  At this point, use your slotted spoon to scoop out the rest of the pieces of bacon.  Once the grease cools, spoon it into a plastic bag and throw it away or place it in your freezer other recipes like Biscuits and Gravy.

Both spinach and iceberg lettuce make this salad over the top.

2.  You need both spinach and iceberg lettuce for this recipe.  I have made this plenty of times without the iceberg lettuce, but it really adds a texture that makes this salad, spot on!

When I was growing up, my mother, a great cook, always wanted me to tear the lettuce.  She told me that cutting lettuce browns the edges.  This could be correct, but I never have time for the edges to brown because I eat the salad when I cut the lettuce.  I am not storing the lettuce for a latter moment.

You can use the spinach right out of the bag or plastic box, but I love it when I take the stems off each leaf.  It takes a little minute or two, but to me, it is so worth it.  Mix the spinach and iceberg lettuce together.  The recipe below is a one person salad. You might look at 4 cups of lettuce and think, “WOW! That is a lot of lettuce.” I agree, but I eat this much salad for one meal.  If you are serving it as a side salad with an entrée, the salad below will serve four people.

Chopping everything into small pieces makes eating salad pleasurable.

3.  Slice the mushrooms.  White button mushrooms are the best on this salad.  Always slice the end of each mushroom stem off and throw it away.  Slice the mushroom in half and then lay the flat side down on the cutting board. 

Slice each half into small pieces.  I like to chop these again because you all know how I do not want to fight my salad when I eat it.  Since I am making it, I take the time to chop everything into small enough pieces that are easy to eat. 

4. Grate the Swiss cheese.  I like small grated Swiss cheese.  It goes along with my comments about mushrooms.  I want small pieces of cheese so everything meshes together to make the best forkful. I use the small side of a box grater.  

The Salad Dressing is the Star of the Show!

5.  Make the salad dressing.  Using a blender is the best way to make this.  It chops up the red onion and mixes the oil and makes a very smooth dressing.

Place the vinegar, sugar, mustard and salt in the blender and mix.  Add in the red onion.  Blend until the onion is hardly noticeable.  Open the small opening in the lid and gradually pour in the oil.  Doing this gives you a salad dressing that will hardly separate.  Dumping the full amount of oil in at one time, does not allow enough time for it to blend correctly.

I use this salad dressing all the time. Using different ingredients gives it a whole new taste.  Just remember 1 part vinegar/acid, 1 part sugar, 2 parts oil.  Always include the salt and mustard. You can really change it up by using different kinds of vinegar or using lemon, lime or orange juice ad the acid part of the recipe.  Vegetable and canola oils are the main ones I use, but you could substitue olive oil and mayonnaise.  I often make my own vinegars with raspberries, blueberries, mangos, etc. and then use these vinegars in this recipe to give the dressing a new twist.

You can also add one tablespoon of poppyseeds to the larger recipe to make any kind of poppyseed dressing you like.

6.  Assemble the salad.   Put the spinach and iceberg lettuce together on a plate.  Then sprinkle on the mushrooms, Swiss cheese and bacon.  Sprinkle on about two tablespoons of that salad dressing, mix and you are ready to eat.

Let me know on Instagram or Facebook if you make this.  Post a picture and tag me @dinasdiner.

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