Spinach & Bacon Salad

This all started w/ a desire to use most of a 5 oz box of spinach that I had leftover from another meal…

I have a deep and abiding love for this type of salad and I’ve really missed it. You may be amazed at how hard it is to find dressing without soy or canola or the wealth of other things I’m trying not to eat…

I was VERY apprehensive about the dressing b/c it really smelled like apple cider at first and I’d tried making a homemade bleu cheese dressing in the past and it was horrible. I let this dressing sit in the fridge for a while after mixing up and it seems to *steep* in a good way. But, don’t refrigerate for very long as it will thicken quite a bit.

The first time around, hubby wasn’t gonna try the dressing and my kid doesn’t do onions or mustard if he can avoid it, so I kept everything mostly separate and let them take what they wanted before I mixed it all together for me to have the whole experience. It was great!!! Boys really liked what they ate from the salad options and I had big seconds. For that first venture, I had a few tomatoes, some chopped onion, and a bit of dressing left but the rest was gone!

These days, I toss the whole salad together minus the dressing as my boys finally tried the dressing and hubby likes it, but my kid is not a fan (as anticipated). And now, only extra dressing is left, but I don’t cut down the dressing portions in the recipe below as others use quite a bit more dressing than we do for this amount of salad…

Hubby was skeptical about them, but really liked the parmesan cheese crisps.

NOTE: I always end up needing some amount of avocado oil (up to 1/4 cup) to supplement bacon drippings due to the lean cut of bacon I use for my bacon bits. If you use bacon grease for the whole part here, be aware that it may coagulate when hitting your cold salad. So, for a creamier dressing, stick with the lean bacon and supplement with avocado oil.

TIP: To make this a Keto recipe, substitute a Keto-friendly powdered sweetener for the powdered sugar.

Spinach & Bacon Salad Recipe

Ingredients

• 6 large Cheddar Parmesan Crisps, cut into bite-size pieces (see my Cheddar Parmesan Crisps recipe)
• 3 large hardboiled eggs, sliced (see my Hardboiled Eggs recipe)
• 5 oz baby spinach
• 1/4 medium red onion, sliced
• 1 (10 oz) carton of grape tomatoes
• 12 oz (pre-cooked weight) cooked bacon bits (see my Bacon Bits recipe)

Bacon Dressing:

• 1/2 cup bacon drippings left over from cooking bacon bits (see avocado oil ingredient note)
• 3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp Mayonnaise
• 2 Tbsp sweetener of choice (I’ve successfully made versions with Lakanto Powdered for Keto or Low Carb eating plans OR confectioner’s sugar for those without special eating plans)
• 1 Tbsp spicy brown mustard
• Avocado oil (only if needed to bring bacon dripping to 1/2 cup – if supplementing bacon drippings with avocado oil, add the oil to pan on stovetop and whisk together.)

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together 3 Tbsp mayo, 1 Tbsp mustard, 3 Tbsp vinegar, and bacon drippings + avocado oil.
2. In a large bowl, combine 5 oz spinach, 1/4 sliced onion, and 10 oz tomatoes.
3. Add dressing to the spinach mix and toss to coat.
4. Top with 3 sliced harboiled eggs, bite-sized cheese crisps, and bacon bits.

NOTE: Nutrition Facts are for the version using powdered sugar.

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 8
Amount per serving
Calories	444
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 32.4g	41%
Saturated Fat 13.4g	67%
Cholesterol 145mg	48%
Sodium 1060mg	46%
Total Carbohydrate 5.4g	2%
Dietary Fiber 1.2g	4%
Total Sugars 3.3g
Protein 30.1g
Vitamin D 8mcg	39%
Calcium 244mg	19%
Iron 1mg	6%
Potassium 246mg	5%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calorie a day is used for general nutrition advice.