Spinach Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing

September 26, 2012 - Cooking & Recipes, CSA Recipes, Salads, spinach - Tagged: - 23 comments

Fall is here.  If the purple asters and cool nights don’t give it away, take a look in the spinach-filled CSA boxes!  Hello spinach salad with hot bacon dressing!

Asters

Asters

A classic salad that needs no updating, it is popular with young and old.  My kids, who turn up their noses at the mere mention of spinach, will gobble down this salad.  Last night, daughter #2 even had seconds!

Spinach Salad Closeup

Spinach Salad Closeup

From a health perspective, although the bacon sounds bad, the dressing is relatively low in fat.  At about 55 calories of fat in a 2-3 T serving, it scores better than most regular salad dressings.  (If you need to reduce the fat even more, use a half piece of bacon crumbles instead of the full piece and eliminate the hard-boiled egg.)  And if you use bacon cured without sodium nitrate (now more readily available including at many Costco and Trader Joe’s stores), even that concern disappears.

Old-fashioned goodness for a crisp fall day!

Spinach Salad

Spinach Salad

Spinach Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing

Makes 4 salads

Ingredients

  • 4 strips bacon–reserve 2 T fat when cooked
  • 1 T  flour
  • 2 T red wine vinegar
  • 2 T sugar
  • 1/4 t pepper
  • 1/4 t prepared mustard
  • 1/2 c water
  • 2 hardboiled eggs, sliced
  • 1/2 can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
  • 5 cups spinach, cleaned and torn into bite-sized pieces
  • Red onion, sliced

Directions

1.  Sautee bacon until crisp.  Remove bacon slices from pan and set aside.

Fry Bacon for Spinach Salad

Fry Bacon

2.  Drain all but 2 T of bacon fat from pan.  Add flour and stir until lumps removed.

3.  Blend in vinegar, sugar, pepper and mustard.   Add water gradually, stirring well to incorporate browned bacon bits in pan.  Heat, stirring continuously, until thickened.

Add water to hot bacon dressing for spinach salad

Add water to dressing

Hot Bacon Dressing

Hot Bacon Dressing (though I usually serve right from cooking pan)

4.  To assemble salad,  divide spinach into four bowls.  Add chopped water chestnuts, sliced onion, hard-boiled egg slices and crumbled bacon.  Top with warm dressing.

If you are pressed for time, the dressing can even be made ahead and reheated.  Just add water to thin as needed.

Happy fall!

Asters

Asters

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