Published Date: March 5, 2024 | Last Updated: March 4, 2024
This recipe is an oldie but a goodie! It’s been a staple at my family gatherings since the 80s. Sarah Salad, also known as layered salad, is a delicious combination of seasoned iceberg lettuce, crunchy bacon, Swiss cheese, and vegetables, stacked in a bowl, and topped with a creamy dressing. I’m not a huge fan of many vintage dishes, but
This recipe is an oldie but a goodie! It’s been a staple at my family gatherings since the 80s. Sarah Salad, also known as layered salad, is a delicious combination of seasoned iceberg lettuce, crunchy bacon, Swiss cheese, and vegetables, stacked in a bowl, and topped with a creamy dressing.
I’m not a huge fan of many vintage dishes, but this salad is weirdly good. Mayo and iceberg aren’t usually my jam, but in this salad, they are!
Ingredients for Layered Salad
Iceberg lettuce: As I said, iceberg lettuce is not my green of choice, but in this salad, you just have to go with it!
Bacon: Fry up your favorite kind of bacon; don’t use the premade and crumbled kind.
Frozen peas: Frozen peas might seem a little weird in a green salad, but the flavor and the texture are perfect.
Swiss cheese: You can either cube or shred your cheese. Just don’t buy the pre-shredded kind!
Tomatoes: This salad is best when the ingredients are as dry as possible, so you’re going to want to remove as much moisture from the tomatoes as you can.
Green onions: This recipe calls for a lot of green onions, and they add tons of great flavor.
Salt, sugar, and pepper: This mixture is sprinkled over the iceberg lettuce before the rest of the salad is put together. I love to use Redmond fine sea salt in this and every recipe I make! It is full of naturally occurring trace minerals. Use my code AMBERSKITCHEN to get 15% off your order.
Mayo and “Salad Dressing”: If you’ve made any vintage recipes, you might have come across an ingredient called “salad dressing.” Now, this isn’t your typical bottled dressing, from the store; it’s actually Miracle Whip! In the 80s, Miracle Whip was commonly referred to as “salad dressing.” If you don’t love Miracle Whip, you could simply use more mayo, or swap it out for sour cream.
How to Make Layered Salad
Making this salad is not hard, but you do have to make sure that you prepare all of the ingredients properly so that they’re DRY. If they’re not dry the salad will get soggy and that’s no good.
Prepare your Ingredients
Wash and chop the lettuce, tomatoes, and green onions. Make sure that they’re super dry. Rinse the frozen peas in hot water and allow them to drain and defrost. Chop the cheese. Cook the bacon and crumble it into small pieces.
Layer
Assemble the salad in a large glass bowl, if you have one, so that you can see the layers. This salad is really quite pretty!
Add the lettuce to a large glass bowl and sprinkle with the salt, sugar, and pepper and toss. Now, add all of the toppings except the bacon. It doesn’t really matter what order your stack them. Reserve a few green onions for garnish.
Combine the mayo and miracle whip in a small bowl. Layer that on top of the salad and smooth it out.
Add the bacon on top and garnish with your remaining green onions.
How Do I Serve Layered Salad?
How to serve this salad is hotly debated amongst layered salad lovers. Some people like to toss it before serving, to combine all of the ingredients and make it easier to serve. Others leave it layered and use salad tongs to take a vertical “slice” out of the salad to grab all of the toppings. There’s no right or wrong way. Only deliciousness!
More Salad Recipes
Happy Cooking!
I hope you love this recipe as much as I do. If you want to follow along on my cooking adventures, follow me on Instagram @AMBERSKITCHEN
Ingredients
- 1 head iceberg lettuce
- 1/2 pound bacon cooked and crumbled
- 5 oz. frozen peas
- 1/2 cup Swiss cheese shredded or cubed
- 1/2 cup green onion diced
- 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes drain all liquid
- 1/2 cup Mayo
- 1/2 cup “salad dressing” that’s 1980s for miracle whip, which can be subbed for Mayo or sour cream
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Hard boiled eggs optional
- Diced celery optional
Instructions
- Wash, chop and thoroughly dry lettuce. Cook and crumble bacon. Cut and drain tomatoes. Rinse frozen peas with hot water and set to drain. Chop green onions and cheese. Combine Mayo and miracle whip. Make sure all lettuce and all toppings are DRY so salad won’t get soggy.
- In a large glass bowl, add the lettuce. Sprinkle with the the salt, sugar, and pepper. Toss.
- Layer all toppings except for bacon.
- Spread the dressing on a layer over the top.
- Top with crumbled bacon (and maybe a few green onions for garnish)
- Either serve immediately or cover tightly with plastic and refrigerate for a few hours before serving.
- Note: I mentioned it above but it’s worth mentioning again- all ingredients and toppings need to be as dry as possible, otherwise the salad will get soggy and that’s no fun.
