Classic Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

Wedge salad with blue cheese dressing is such a classic! Made with iceberg lettuce, crispy bacon, cherry tomatoes, and homemade blue cheese dressing. 15 minutes and it's ready for the table!

Iceberg wedge salads on white plates with blue cheese, bacon and tomatoes.
Sheryl Julian

For years, iceberg lettuce got a real thrashing from chefs who thought of it as tasteless and nothing but texture. What’s wrong with great texture?

Cut up a head of iceberg for a classic wedge salad, add blue cheese dressing, smoky bacon, and a few cherry tomatoes, and even the worst kitchen snobs will change their minds!

What Is a Wedge Salad?

Wedge salads go back to the early 20th century, when iceberg lettuce was simply dressed with a creamy dressing such as Roquefort, Russian, or Green Goddess before serving.

Blue cheese and bacon became wildly popular additions in the 1950s, but then the dish fell out of favor as the trend faded and as leafier, more flavorful lettuces (like red and green leaf, oak leaf, and others) came into popularity.

But all good things return to the table, and so have wedge salads.

Sheryl Julian

How To Make Wedge Salad

There’s so little prep with this salad that you can make it in the time it takes to fry bacon. If you're serving this at a dinner party, you can make life even easier on yourself by frying the bacon and whisking the dressing ahead of time.

The Best Dressing for Wedge Salad

For the dressing, I like to use a combination of sour cream, mayonnaise, blue cheese, and cider vinegar. It needs to be fairly thick, but still pourable, so when the dressing goes over the wedges, it sticks to the top, but still drizzles down the sides and onto the plate.

Crumble bacon, add a few colorful cherry tomatoes and a sprinkle of chives and you have really wonderful textures and tastes: creamy, crisp, crunchy, smoky, juicy, aromatic. The classics are classic for a reason.

More Classic Salad Recipes

Classic Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

Prep Time 10 mins
Cook Time 5 mins
Total Time 15 mins
Servings 6 servings

Make-ahead Tip: The bacon and the dressing can both be prepared several days ahead. Reheat the bacon briefly in the microwave before serving, if desired.

Ingredients

  • 6 thick strips bacon

  • 2 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise

  • 1/4 cup sour cream

  • 1 tablespoon cider vinegar

  • 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, or more to taste

  • Dash hot sauce, like Tabasco, or more to taste

  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, or more to taste

  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or more to taste

  • Heavy cream or milk, as needed to thin the dressing

  • 1 head iceberg lettuce

  • 12 red or yellow cherry tomatoes, quartered

  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Special Equipment

  • Food processor

Method

  1. Cook the bacon:

    In a heavy skillet, fry the bacon strips, turning often, for 5 minutes, or until they are evenly golden and crisp all over.

    Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels. Cool and crumble.

    Ingredients for blue cheese wedge salad. Bacon, tomatoes, iceberg lettuce and blue cheese.
    Sheryl Julian
  2. Make the blue cheese dressing:

    In a food processor, combine the blue cheese, mayonnaise, sour cream, vinegar, Worcestershire, hot sauce, salt, and pepper. Pulse the mixture until smooth. Taste for seasoning and add more Worcestershire, hot sauce, salt, or pepper, if you like. If you need to thin the mixture, add heavy cream or milk, 1 teaspoon at a time.

    Blue cheese dressing in the bowl of a food processor with a flexible spatula inside to make a blue cheese wedge salad.
    Sheryl Julian
  3. Prepare the iceberg lettuce:

    Discard the outer leaves of the lettuce. Halve the lettuce through the core. Cut each half into 3 wedges so each piece has some core attached to it. With the wedges flat on the cutting board, trim out the tough part of the core from each wedge, but leave enough so that the wedges stay intact.

    How to make a wedge salad by slicing iceberg lettuce into wedges.
    Sheryl Julian
  4. Assemble the salads:

    Arrange the wedges on 6 salad plates. Spoon some dressing over the wedges. Sprinkle with bacon, tomatoes, and chives. Serve immediately.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
210 Calories
17g Fat
7g Carbs
7g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 6
Amount per serving
Calories 210
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 17g 22%
Saturated Fat 6g 32%
Cholesterol 34mg 11%
Sodium 467mg 20%
Total Carbohydrate 7g 2%
Dietary Fiber 2g 5%
Total Sugars 5g
Protein 7g
Vitamin C 5mg 24%
Calcium 85mg 7%
Iron 1mg 4%
Potassium 280mg 6%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. In cases where multiple ingredient alternatives are given, the first listed is calculated for nutrition. Garnishes and optional ingredients are not included.