Drizzling the Warm Bacon Dressing over a perfect Spinach Salad allows all it’s amazing flavors to shine!
With just a few easy ingredients you can make this amazing Warm Bacon Dressing Spinach Salad. It’s a show stopper at any dinner table and will be a hit with your guests. It’s the perfect salad with many different entrees. Plus, it’s a favorite salad of ours.
It’s delicious served for lunch, brunch, or dinner all year long. This salad is great paired alongside our Grilled Lamb Chops with Pomegranate or our classic Tomahawk Steak.
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There are 2 easy parts to a classic Warm Bacon Dressing Spinach Salad
- Assemble the fresh baby spinach leaves with all the other delicious salad components – this can be done ahead of time and set aside in the refrigerator.
- Prepare the hot bacon dressing – this should be done prior to serving and then served immediately.
Ingredients for this simple Spinach Salad
- Fresh Baby Spinach, stems removed
- Thick-Cut Bacon, cooked and chopped into small pieces (reserve the fat for the dressing)
- Hard-Boiled Eggs, sliced (see below for our expert tips on preparing perfect hard boiled egg)
- Mushroom, sliced
- Red Onion, thinly sliced
Ingredients for the Hot Bacon Dressing
- Bacon Fat – leftover from the cooking bacon for the salad ingredients
- Sugar
- Red Wine Vinegar
- Lemon Juice, freshly squeezed
- Salt
- Pepper
- Worcestershire Sauce
How to make Hot Bacon Dressing
- Cook bacon until you get a nice crisp bacon strip. Remove from pan, and let cool on a paper towel-lined plate until room temperature.
- Reserve 4 Tablespoons of the bacon fat
- In a small saucepan add the reserved bacon drippings, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, and Worcestershire sauce
- Heat over medium-low heat and whisk until all of the sugar has dissolved
- Season to taste with salt and pepper. Some bacon is saltier than others so the amount of salt you add can vary, it’s best to taste test as you go.
- Let dressing cool slightly while plating the tender spinach greens
- This dressing can be prepared up to 2 days in advance, chilled, and reheated immediately before serving
Steps for making a Warm Bacon Dressing Spinach Salad
Because the warm bacon dressing will wilt the spinach when added to the salad it’s important to prep all of the ingredients in advance. Once the dressing is added you will want to serve immediately.
- Prepare and cool the hard boiled eggs. (See our expert tip below for perfect hard boiled eggs every time!).
- Peel the eggs and slice with a sharp knife, or use an Egg Slicer for easy, perfectly even slices
- Rough chop the cooked bacon in bite sized pieces
- Wash, dry and trim the long stems from the baby spinach leaves, and set aside
- Peel and cut the red raw onions in half. The best way to do this is to cut it stem to root. Then slice one half of the onion in half moon slices
- Clean, dry, and cut off the rough woody stems of the fresh mushrooms. Slice mushrooms into bite size slices
- Toss all of the ingredients with the warm salad dressing and serve immediately
Best ways to serve a Warm Bacon Dressing Spinach Salad
One of the things we love about this salad is the different options you have for serving. Here are our 3 favorite ways:
- The simplest way to serve is family style. Combine hard-boiled eggs, sliced onions, sliced mushrooms, chopped crispy bacon together in a large salad bowl, toss with dressing and serve immediately.
- Toss the spinach with the hot dressing, place on a platter then scatter hard cooked eggs, chopped bacon, onions and mushrooms on top and serve immediately.
- Toss the cold spinach with the warm dressing, place in 4 individual bowls and scatter on the rest of the ingredients
However you decide to serve this salad just keep in mind that once the dressing is added you will want to serve right away before the salad wilts too much!
Expert Tip:
We like to place our sliced onions in the warm dressing and allow the onions to soften slightly and soak in the bacon flavor while preparing the rest of our salad ingredients!
How to hard boil eggs:
There are many schools of thought on how to hard boil eggs. We prefer a simple and straight forward approach that turns out perfect every time.
- Place eggs in a shallow sauce pan
- Fill the sauce pan with water to fully cover the eggs
- Bring the water to a boil
- Boil for 15 minutes
- Remove from the heat and gently drain the water
- Fully cover the eggs with cool water
- Let the cooked eggs sit until they are cool enough that you can easily handle them
- Remove from water. pat dry and use or refrigerate them in an airtight container.
- Hard boiled eggs will keep in the refrigerator for up to 7 days
How to evenly slice hard boiled eggs
We are hooked on this Egg Slicer from OXO for even slicing. It slices the eggs into 1/4th inch slices for round or oblong slices. (We do oblong). If you don’t have an egg slicer just use a sharp slicing knife for best results.
More tasty and delicious salad ideas
- Easy Grilled Caesar Salad – a great twist on the original version with grilled flavor
- Strawberry Spinach Salad – with crumbled blue cheese and our candied pecans
- Tricolore Salad with Oranges – bright flavors with our classic Lemon Vinaigrette
- Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad – with tart pomegranate seeds
- Arugula Beet Salad with Goat Cheese – packed with flavor and color
- Chicken Apple Salad – with a zesty Parmesan dressing.
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Warm Bacon Dressing Spinach Salad
Equipment
- Hard Boiled Egg Slicer
Ingredients
Spinach Salad:
- 8 cups fresh baby spinach
- 2 slices bacon
- 12 mushrooms
- 2 hard boil eggs, prepared and cooled
- ½ red onion
Hot Bacon Dressing:
- 4 Tablespoons bacon fat (from cooked bacon)
- 3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 dash Worcestershire sauce
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch black pepper, freshly ground
Instructions
Prep the Salad:
- Wash baby spinach and dry completely. Trim stems off and set aside
- Fry two pieces of thick-cut bacon until lightly crispy in a small saute pan and set aside to drain on a paper towel. Once cooled cut into small pieces. Reserve 4 Tablespoons of the bacon fat for the dressing
- Clean, remove woody end of stems, and slice mushrooms
- Peel a large red onion, cut in half and slice one half of the onion into thin slices. The slices should resemble half moon shapes
- Peel and slice hard boiled eggs with an egg slicer or a sharp knife
Hot Bacon Dressing Instructions:
- In a small pan add the reserved 4 Tablespoons of bacon fat, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, and Worcestershire sauce
- Heat on low, whisking, until sugar is completely dissolved
- Taste and add a dash of pepper and salt, to taste
Assembling Salad:
- Add all of the salad ingredients to a large bowl
- Toss with the warm bacon dressing
- Serve as a large salad or as 4 individual salads and serve immediately
Notes
- This salad should be dressed immediately before serving because the warm dressing will wilt the spinach.
- Dressing can be prepared up to 2 days in advance and reheated just before serving
Maria San Juan
This looks so yummy! I will try this one of these days!
Jess
Bacon in dressing?! Yes please!! Delish!
Nic
Um, you had me at “warm bacon dressing” love love love spinach salads, thank you so much for the recipe!
Carrie Robinson
This is one of my favorite salads! Warm bacon dressing is the best. 🙂
Anjali
The bacon dressing totally elevates this salad!! It made for the perfect side dish for our dinner this evening!