Old Fashioned Wilted Leaf Lettuce Salad
We look forward to fresh leaf lettuce from our garden every year. My favorite way to eat leaf lettuce is in a wilted salad. It is simple, quick and has bacon in it! It is called wilted lettuce because you put hot dressing on it which causes the leaf lettuce to wilt.
I will share a few pictures of some of my husband’s plants in his raised bed garden, however, I took these pictures a few weeks back. The plants have at least doubled their size by now.
Rinse the lettuce and gently pat dry or use a salad spinner.
Cook the bacon, remove it and place it on a paper towel covered plate. Leave the bacon fat in the skillet. Once the bacon is cool, break into small bite sized pieces.
Reheat the bacon fat until hot.
Add the green onion, salt, pepper, vinegar, water and sugar. Stir until hot and the sugar is dissolved.
Place lettuce, torn into bite sized pieces, into each salad bowl.
Place hard boiled egg pieces and bacon pieces on top of the lettuce in each serving bowl. Pour the hot dressing on top, toss and serve immediately. Recipe is at the bottom of this post.
BELOW ARE SOME PICTURES OF PART OF OUR GARDEN FROM A FEW WEEKS EARLIER.
Poblano Peppers
Tomatoes and Jalapeño Peppers
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Tomatoes and Green Peppers
I had to share my husband’s new favorite clips he is using instead of tying up the plants.
Old Fashioned Wilted Leaf Lettuce Salad
http://www.InDianesKitchen.com
Ingredients
- 8-10 cups leaf lettuce (or spinach)
- 4-5 bacon strips
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- 2 Tbsp. water
- 2 green onions with tops, sliced
- 2 tsp. sugar
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 4-5 hard boiled eggs, quartered
Serving size is 4-5 people.
Directions
- Rinse the lettuce and gently pat dry or use a salad spinner.
- Cook the bacon, remove bacon and place it on a paper towel covered plate. Leave the bacon fat in the skillet. Once the bacon is cool, break it into small bite sized pieces.
- Reheat the bacon fat until hot.
- Add the green onion, salt, pepper, vinegar, water and sugar. Stir until hot and the sugar is dissolved.
- Place lettuce, torn into bite sized pieces, into each salad bowl.
- Place hard boiled egg and bacon pieces on top of the lettuce in each serving bowl. Pour the hot dressing on top, toss and serve immediately.
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Categories: Bacon, Eggs, Salad, Salad/Dressings
It’s really nice when you can grow your own food like lettuce. Congrats and enjoy the harvest this year!
Thank you Ab! I just cut up poblano peppers and froze them. We had cucumbers in our salad yesterday and I have picked almost 2 gallons of blueberries. I can’t wait for the tomatoes, I need a BLT!
Super delicious and I love those raised bed garden!
Awe thank you!
I like your garden paths covered in straw.
We had mud for years and picking the veggies after a rain was a mess not to mentions the constant weeding. The straw decomposes slowly and keeps the mud and weeds away. Thank you Sam!
Very healthy green garden you all got going on there! I love it! Nice and healthy light meal or breakfast exempting the bacon and eggs for me of course! I’ll do so with either tuna, salmon or just veggies! Blessings! 🙏🏼🕊💖
Thank you Tammy, you eat very healthy!
Most welcome….I do my best to!
My mother used to make this salad, and I had forgotten all about it – not that I ever knew how to make it. I’m so glad your shared your recipe, Diane. Your husband’s garden looks beautiful, but I need to know if the marigolds are there to keep pests out or just to look pretty.
Thank you Kellye. The marigolds draw the insects that eat the vegetable plants and they help to bring in the pollinators.
very nice, welldone
Thank you so much Charlie!
Wow! Where has this salad been all my life? Unfortunately, my lettuce has up and bolted. I plan to start some from seed once it cools off again. Can you grow lettuce all summer where you live? I presume not.
No ours bolted too, my husband will plant more from seed in the fall as well.
Lovely! Great little garden you have growing all this. I have grown tomatoes and peas, those always come out nice.
Thank you Paul. I love to eat the peas right off the vine! I don’t even bother cooking them as I eat them cold from the refrigerator like candy too.
Your garden looks lovely! I am worried about mine, I only planted tomatoes and peppers but nothing seems to be happening. This is the first year it is failing. I like the recipe for the salad, I kinda remember one of my grandmothers doing something like this. It looks delicious and I do love salads
Thank you, we’ve started picking cucumbers and a variety of peppers. I’m so sorry to hear about your garden Susan!
Me too! We’re away now but hopefully when we get home they’ll perk up!
Fingers crossed!
I like those clips – tying flowers to a stick when they get droopy (think Cosmos as they are flimsy sometimes) was a pain. Interesting about the wilted lettuce. If your husband’s raised gardens and Marigolds to keep the bunnies and squirrels away? Hope it works as everything is coming up well!
The marigolds attract pollinators and deter some of the insect pests that can harm the plants. The clips are amazing and my husband said he will use them every year now. So far he has picked 8 cucumbers and 6 poblano peppers. Everything else is growing good. Picking the blueberries are killing me but I’m doing it in shifts. I even pruned the wisteria by myself and thought I was going to die that night, thank goodness for my pain pills. I still have the pruned vines on the ground to pick up. It’s too hot and with picking blueberries it is just too much, but I will do it. I’m trying so hard to lessen the burden of the yard for Terry.
Well you two working as a team will get thru this growing season and get it done. I couldn’t remember why I had the marigolds back in the day but thought it was for bunnies – good to know. Those clips are much better than tying string and it gets knotted and everything else.
Great photos of your garden Diane as always! Hot salad dressing is something I’ve never tried…
I only use it this way and on leaf lettuce, although I will try it on spinach. Thank you Emily!
It’s 4:00 pm where I am and this looks absolutely delicious Diane! Thanks for the inspiration for dinner! Hugs, C
Thank you Cheryl and you’re welcome!
What a nice salad … and I’m even more impressed with your vegetable garden!
Thank you, my husband brought in 5 nice sized cucumbers this morning. Yesterday we caught woodchuck #2 in a live trap that my husband placed next to the cucumbers. They love to eat the leaves and destroy the plant. We still have mama and one more young one to trap. My husband released them in a woods near a large stream so they survive.
Is a woodchuck like a groundhog? I hope the woods are far away from your house … so they don’t come back! I know they like carrots too – maybe you should leave them in the woods with a big bag of carrots so they stay there 😉.
Yes the woodchuck is the same as the groundhog as far as I know. I didn’t know they liked carrots too. We are having trouble catching the last two, may have to try carrots!
What a beautiful garden, Diane! The wilted lettuce salad reminded me of the Open Hearth Cooking Class I took in May at Hart Square Village here in NC. Among other things, of course, we made a wilted lettuce salad, so the dish must date back to colonial times. An e-mail and Facebook hack have dominated my life for the last month and a half. I apologize for falling behind in reading your blog. Maybe tomorrow (?) I can catch up! I’m finding its painstakingly slow to change my email address with everyone and every doctor’s office, etc. I love the ones who want me to verify my new address by responding to an email they’re sending to my old address. I don’t have access to it now, so I’ve pulled out most of my hair. LOL! I was unable to prove to Facebook that I am who I am. Too bad they didn’t ask the hacker for his ID! I hope you’re having a nice summer. Summer was slow in coming to NC this year, but it’s certainly here now.
Thank you Janet! Yes wilted lettuce salad goes way back. I am so sorry to hear about being hacked!!!! My mom just went through the same thing with FB. She got so frustrated she just created a new account. I hope things get figured out soon Janet. 🥰