Name: Bougie Wedge Salad Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 1 petite artisan romaine lettuce head; 4 pieces maple brown sugar candied bacon; 3-4 campari tomatoes; 2 oz blue cheese (of choice); 1 oz red onion; 2 tablespoons jalapeño ranch dressing

This Bougie Wedge Salad recipe has a few elevated twists by adding candied bacon and jalapeño ranch dressing along with juicy red Campari tomatoes. A fun date night salad with your wedge-loving friends!

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wedge salad on a plate close up side view, dressing in background

Why You Will Love This Wedge Salad Recipe

If you truly enjoy a good wedge salad, you will appreciate this version. This bougie wedge salad recipe brings in a little sweetness and a little heat, along with juicy sweet Campari tomatoes. An excellent upgrade for wedge salad lovers.

Top view of a wedge salad topped with bacon, tomatoes and a glass jar of jalapeno ranch dressing with a spoon resting in it next to the plate.

Wedge Salad Ingredients

Romaine Lettuce – I prefer romaine over traditional iceberg lettuce because romaine lettuce has a slight nutritional advantage over iceberg lettuce.
Maple Brown Sugar Candied Bacon – This easy candied bacon is a fun upgrade from standard salty bacon and levels up this salad in a very playfully sweet way.
Campari Tomatoes - Campari is a type of hybrid tomato noted for its juiciness, high sugar level, low acidity. Campari’s are deep red, small in size, but larger than cherry tomatoes, and smaller, rounder than common plum tomatoes.
Blue Cheese (of choice) – blue cheeses vary from soft to firm and mild to intense flavor. Here is a quick explanation: In choosing a Blue Cheese for your table, a general rule of thumb is that creamy blues are usually milder than the crumbly ones. This is because the extended aging of crumbly blues allows the veining of blue mold to spread deeper through the cheese, concentrating and intensifying the Blue Cheese flavor.
Red Onion – thinly sliced
Jalapeño Ranch Dressing - this dressing brings a touch of spice to the table.

Ingredients to make a bougie wedge salad laid out on a baking sheet.

How To Make Wedge Salad

Prepare bacon, and assemble salad dressing while the bacon is cooking to complete this recipe in 35 minutes. Then assemble as follows:

Cut off the bottom of one petite artisan romaine lettuce head, then cut vertically along the spine, down the center of the entire head. Place both halves on a dinner plate.
Thinly shave red onion with a mandolin or slice very thin with a knife. Place the desired amount of red onion across the lettuce.
Arrange 3 to 4 campari tomatoes, that have been quartered onto the plate.
Add 2 oz of crumbled blue cheese. This can be soft or hard blue cheese. Soft will be a bit messier to distribute, but more mild in flavor. A firmer blue will carry more intense flavor and crumble more easily.
Using kitchen shears, cut 4 pieces of maple candied bacon into bite-size pieces and garnish on top of the lettuce.
Add 2 tablespoons (or desired amount) of jalapeño ranch dressing over the top of your salad compilation and serve with a fork and steak knife for easy cutting. Enjoy!

What to Serve with Wedge Salad:

A wedge salad is commonly known as a “steakhouse” salad because it’s most often offered in steakhouses and because it is a lovely side dish companion to the steak of your choice. I prefer it alongside a good medium-rare ribeye steak.

Equipment

Mandolin – achieve extra thin red onion slices with a mandolin

Knife - Here is my favorite everyday knife for slicing and chopping

History of the Wedge Salad

The hallmark of the wedge salad is its appealing mix of cooling and creamy elements, and its total simplicity. The wedge salad debuted in the 1920s in many restaurants, but interestingly enough, no chef claimed it as his or her original. Later in the 1950s, blue cheese crumbles and bits of bacon topped the stylish, traditional wedges that we still enjoy today. After a decline in popularity, the wedge salad found a new home in steakhouse chains from coast to coast in the 1970’s.

overhead of wedge salad on a white plate with dressing on the side

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Bougie Wedge Salad Recipe

This Bougie Wedge Salad recipe has a few elevated twists by adding candied bacon and jalapeño ranch dressing along with juicy red Campari tomatoes. A fun date night date salad with your wedge loving friends!

Course All Recipes, Dinner, Lunch, Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword how to make wedge salad, wedge salad ingredients, Wedge salad recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes

Total Time 10 minutes

Servings

Calories 389kcal

Ingredients

1 petite artisan romaine lettuce head
4 pieces maple brown sugar candied bacon
3-4 campari tomatoes
2 oz blue cheese of choice
1 oz red onion
2 tablespoons jalapeño ranch dressing

Instructions

Prepare bacon, and assemble salad dressing while the bacon is cooking to complete this recipe in 35 minutes. Then assemble as follows:
Cut off the bottom of one petite artisan romaine lettuce head, then cut vertically along the spine, down the center of the entire head. Place both halves on a dinner plate.
Thinly shave red onion with a mandolin or slice very thin with a knife. Place the desired amount of red onion across the lettuce.
Arrange 3 to 4 campari tomatoes, that have been quartered onto the plate.
Add 2 oz of crumbled blue cheese. This can be soft or hard blue cheese. Soft will be a bit messier to distribute, but more mild in flavor. A firmer blue will carry more intense flavor and crumble easier.
Using kitchen shears, cut 4 pieces of candied bacon into bite size pieces and garnish on top of the lettuce.
Add 2 tablespoons (or desired amount) of jalapeño ranch dressing over the top of your salad compilation and serve with a fork and steak knife for easy cutting. Enjoy!