Everybody’s Favorite Retro Salad
Friday, September 17, 2010 at 4:00AM 
By Sandy Hu
It used to be that “salad,” meant iceberg lettuce. Today, with so many sophisticated and more intensely-flavored varieties of baby greens, iceberg lettuce has been consigned to the role of leaf backdrop in burger buns.
Iceberg is enjoying a mini-comeback. Its mild taste and its ability to get totally crisp (we’ll show you how), makes it the prefect foil for rich and pungent blue cheese.
Iceberg Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing is a fabulous salad to serve as an impressive first course when you have company, since it’s so easy to make. Whip up the dressing and chill the lettuce the day before. Just cut the head into wedges and assemble the salad before guests come to the table.
Since this is such a rich salad, you could serve it as the main course for a light supper, with hunks of baguette on the side.
For an easy way to cook bacon, check out Katie’s super-simple cooking tip.
Iceberg Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing
Makes 4 servings
1 head iceberg lettuce
½ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup sour cream
Few drops Worcestershire sauce
½ cup crumbled blue cheese (about 2 ounces)
About 4 tablespoons milk
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Garnishes, Optional
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
4 slices cooked bacon, chopped
Rap lettuce on the countertop, core side down, to dislodge core. Twist out core. Put head under the faucet, core side up, and run cold water into the hole to rinse leaves thoroughly. Turn head upside down and shake to drain. Set on a plate or tray to drain for about 10 minutes, then put head in a plastic bag and refrigerate a few hours or overnight until leaves are crisp and crunchy.
In the meantime, mix together mayonnaise, sour cream and Worcestershire sauce. Gently stir in blue cheese. If mixture seems too thick, add milk ad needed. Dressing should be thick, but not stiff. Season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Remove chilled lettuce from the refrigerator and cut into quarters to make four wedges. Put each wedge on a salad plate and drizzle with dressing. (Depending upon the size of your lettuce wedge, you may not need all the dressing.) Scatter tomatoes on the plate and top wedges with bacon, dividing equally. Serve immediately.
Note: If you have any dressing left over, use it to top baked potato the next day. Or make this dressing without the milk and serve it as a dip for veggies.
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Reader Comments (2)
Sandy, this was another great video demo by you. I'm actually having that salad for dinner this evening. The lettuce is washed and chilling in my refrigerator right now as I type this comment. :-)
I am so happy you like the demo and are making the salad, Janet. Thanks so much for sharing your comments. It’s so nice to hear back. Have a great dinner! - Sandy