Mini Wedge Salads

I made these salads for a work potluck simply because I was being cheap if I’m being completely honest. I was thinking about how to make salad spread farther to be able to feed the amount of people we had. But then, they turned out so beautiful. And these were such a hit at the party. I knew it’d be an injustice if I didn’t share these with you guys too!

Let’s talk about traditional wedge salad. It’s typically a head of iceberg lettuce cut into 4 wedges, smothered in blue cheese dressing, and topped with bacon, onion, and tomatoes. But I wanted to stretch the lettuce, and I don’t like blue cheese. So, we’re making a few small tweaks to the original to get to the version you see here today.

To make our mini wedges, we’re going to cut a head of iceberg in half vertically (through the core). Once we have the 2 halves, we’ll cut out those little pieces of core from the bottom of the lettuce. Then, we’ll cut each half in half again vertically and horizontally. And, voila! We have 8 baby wedges to arrange directly on our serving platter.

Next, we’re going to drizzle our homemade ranch dressing all over our lettuce wedges. This is going to act like glue to help keep our other toppings on the salad. The homemade dressing is a simple mix of sour cream, mayo, milk, and pantry spices like garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, chives, and my secret ingredient…paprika.

After our dressing layer is complete, it’s time to sprinkle on some grape tomato halves, some shredded cheddar cheese, and some crispy crumbled bacon. I went back and forth on the onion component of this salad, because I know so many people can be really funny about onions. So to finish the salad, we’re going to give it a sprinkling of fresh minced chives. Chives are nice and delicate, so they’re the perfect way to get oniony essence without overpowering anyone’s mouth.

And, that’s all there is to it!

Now the cool thing about these salads is that they’re super adaptable. If you love blue cheese and want to be a little more traditional, go ahead and use that instead. If you love onions, go ahead a toss on some thinly sliced shallot or red onion. If you want to keep these vegetarian and skip the bacon, do it. Just add a sprinkling of parmesan cheese to the salad to help replace the salty bite.

At the end of the day, you can’t go wrong with a basic house salad. They’re cool and crispy and creamy and savory all at one time. But, these mini wedge salads are a showstopper on the presentation scale. I can’t tell you how many people told me they get overwhelmed by the size of classic wedge salads but thought the idea of this mini version was brilliant.

We all know my brain can be a wild place sometimes, but it’s those brilliant moments that I love to celebrate!

Ok, everyone! It’s not too late to add these mini wedge salads to your holiday menus. And, these work great as a New Year’s appetizer or a game day veggie component too!

This is officially the last post of 2022. Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR, please stay safe, and cheers to 2023!

Let’s eat!