Hot Bacon Vinaigrette
Spinach salad is topped with chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, hard boiled eggs, and bacon! Tossed with a Hot Bacon Vinaigrette Dressing, this salad is a hearty bacon-lover's dream.
BACON!!!! On the salad, in the dressing -- this is a good day.
Quick note: sometimes I poke around in my archives and find recipes from for-ehhhh-vurrrr ago that are just begging to get in front of new eyes. I made this Hot Bacon Vinaigrette Salad for dinner last week and decided it NEEDED to be shared. Because we love bacon, right?
Right.
So please don't be confused by the weird mentions of Christmas trees or Santa Claus in this post. This is a recipe that will happily grace our table no matter the time of year. And bonus!!! In the summer all the produce (read: tomatoes!!!) are in season.
When I originally shared this recipe I made it with what I think were basically the freshest, prettiest greens I ever ate. We bought our Christmas tree from a local nursery that weekend. It's run by this adorable retired couple who I'd really like to be in 40 years - they have greenhouses filled with flowers EVERYWHERE on a property that is secluded and gorgeous down a little paved road that winds through the woods. They have a few happy lazy dogs (and one gigantic sun-bathing cat) that wander in and out with the customers. And while their daughter rang up our purchases, I spied them at the two-seater dinette table in their tiny kitchen/cozy break room sharing a turkey sandwich.
Before we left they loaded us up with allllllllll these fresh greens that they literally cut straight out of the ground and handed to me to stuff in a plastic sack.
Gifted greens.
From the cutest couple ever. I mean it.
I went with spinach in my remake because there were no freshly cut gorgeous greens at the grocery store. Spinach and bacon go really good together.
At the original publish date for this Hot Bacon Dressing, we had the holidays on the horizon and Evan was still trying to Santa-stump me. He was asking me how the reindeer manage to be so quiet when they land on our roof? I told him that surely if they are magical enough to fly then they can land with a bit of grace and ease. Then I tried to distract him by telling him about the reindeer food recipe that Jenn gave me. It has sugar and oats!!! But my little chatterbox was not done with me yet.
He informed me that he is asking Santa for one of the elves' hats for Christmas this year. He is totally serious. I asked him what was he going to do with an elf hat? He laughed at me like I was ridiculous and said, "I'm gonna wear it, what do you think?"
Obviously I am not with the program.
I may have been distracted by all the bacon.
- 4 (or more!!) slices of bacon
- 1 teaspoon honey
- ½ teaspoon dark brown sugar
- ½ cup red wine vinegar
- ¾ teaspoon spicy mustard
- salt & pepper to taste
- Cook the bacon in a large skillet. Set it aside to drain on paper towels.
- Drain all of the bacon grease from the skillet EXCEPT about 3 tablespoons.
- With the burner on medium low (or just low- your skillet should still be hot). stir the honey and brown sugar into the hot bacon grease.
- Gradually pour in the red wine vinegar, stirring constantly.
- Stir in the spicy mustard.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour into a serving carafe (or a liquid measuring cup if you're like me). This dressing is best served warm
Based on THIS recipe at Chow.com
If you love bacon, you're also gonna wanna try...
Roasted Jalapeno and Bacon Macaroni
BBQ Bites with Apple Bacon Slaw
I just saw this & that you mentioned my reindeer food recipe 🙂
🙂 Loved it.
the one I gave you I mean, not that I created it.
Oh my god - this is genius! I love bacon. I love bacon salady stuff (like spinach, french green beans, bacon and poached egg...mmm). Why have I never thought to combine the two to make a bacon vinaigrette before?!
This dressing is sooooo good. I love bacon! This is a recipe you could make!! No oven required.
Yessssssss!
I just printed this out. Bacon dressing, here I come!!
Super! Lemme know how you like it! My kids asked me if I had anymore of that bacon dressing yesterday- it was a hit.
mmmmm..... bacon!
I know, right?
Your little elf sounds adorable.. Christmas is always the best when there are little ones around. And I love bacon too:)
He is sooo into Christmas. I love it.
Love this post!! I recently had hot bacon vinaigrette...delicious!! Glad you provided a recipe 😀
Thanks! It's super easy and I always have all this stuff on hand. Enjoy!!
My brother was actually all like - I can have chicken salad, why not bacon? Haha it looks awesome 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Your brother is right. Bacon salad= delicious.
This looks so good, Heather! And I've been wanting to make a good bacon dressing. I will definitely use this soon. You better post that chocolate chip bacon cookie recipe when you find it! 🙂
I'm gonna work it out verrrry soon.
Lemme know how this dressing works out for you! We love it!
This sounds like exactly what I need to eat more spinach salad! I don't have a cookie recipe for bacon chocolate chip, but I did see a bacon flavored cupcake at one of those fru fru cupcake shops...Yours would be better.
I'm gonna make that cookie happen. Watch!
I'm on a veggie binge this week. Thanksgiving salad cleanse. This dressing is soooooo good. Red wine vinegar is like sweet and tart and delicious.
First off I LOVE your cute little recipe card at the bottom!!! That's SO awesome!!! I think it's so adorable that Evan is trying to Santa block you hahaha Good luck on that elf hat lol I wish kids could never stop believing!!! It's so much more fun when they're young and cute!!! I'm not a big fan of bacon (I know right? what the heck is wrong with me lol) but I'd eat this haha I don't know why but the whole warm bacon part had me sold!!!! And that little couple sounds adorable!! I wish I had fresh greens growing in my back yard too!!! YUM!!!
I was pretty excited about the printer-friendly recipe plugin. Glad you like it! You are the only person I've ever met that is not a bacon-lover. Make this dressing. I'll make a believer outta you, yet!