This colorful salad is perfect for winter. The crunchiness of the vegetables and the zestiness of the salad dressing give this salad a full-bodied, hearty feel. Serve as a side salad for soup or, to make this a complete meal, add some seasoned chicken breast strips and your favorite cheese and serve with rolls or slices of toasted French bread.
The dressing is super easy to make; just toss everything into a blender and whirl for 30 seconds-1 minute.
Crunchy Winter Salad with Zesty Bacon Vinaigrette
Recipe by Terri @ that’s some good cookin’
Printable Recipe
- 2 heads romaine lettuce
- ½ small head purple cabbage
- 1 bunch green onions
- 3 stalks celery
- 2 carrots
- 8-10 radishes
Cut all of the vegetables into whatever size or shape you desire for your salad. Toss until evenly mixed. Serve this salad with Zesty Bacon Vinaigrette dressing on the side or with your favorite salad dressing.
Zesty Bacon Vinaigrette
Recipe by Terri @ that’s some good cookin’
Printable Recipe
- 2/3 cup white wine vinegar (or a mixture of vinegars)
- 1/4 cup white sugar or 1/4 cup agave
- 1 cup olive oil
- ½ cup parmesan-romano cheese mix (use either fresh grated or the Kraft parmesan-romano grated cheeses that you find in the bottle or can in the pasta section of your grocery store)
- 2 slices bacon, fried crisp but not too brown, chopped
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 clove garlic, rough chopped (about 1 teaspoon)
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning or 1/4 teaspoon each dried basil and oregano, and 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Toss all ingredients in a blender and whirl until smooth, about 30 seconds-1 minute. Put in refrigerator and chill, 30 minutes or longer, so that the flavors can blend. Serve over Crunchy Winter Salad.
A note about cooking bacon: Cooking bacon in the microwave is a great alternative to cooking it in a frying pan. Put a couple of paper towels on a plate. Place the bacon strips on top of the papers towels, then cover with one more paper towel. Cook on high, about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, depending on the bacon thickness, per slice of bacon for crispy bacon. This timing per slice of bacon is fairly standard for 1100-1200 watt microwaves. If your microwave is 700 watts, then its going to take slightly longer than 1 minute…but I don’t know how long. Start with a minute and adjust in 10-15 second increments. Let me know how long the lower wattage microwaves take!
Talkin' Around the Table