The wedge salad  is very retro (circa 1950’s)  and I’m seeing it on a lot of menus lately. As much as I like a kale salad, I don’t want one every day.

Speaking of retro, have you watched the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel yet? It’s been out for a few years now, but was in season 3 when I first posted this wedge salad recipe.

The wit, the clothes, the storyline, the pace, are enticing in this absolutely original take on a New York Jewish housewife in the 1950’s who has it all, and then stuff happens. Of course, that “all” is defined by 1950’s Jewish mothers who want son-in-laws, grandchildren and close proximity.

This amazon original is just as refreshing and accessorized by proper twists and turns as this festive wedge salad.

Lately I’ve been on a wedge salad kick, ordering them everywhere I go. Typically, made with crisp iceberg lettuce, blue cheese and bacon, the wedge hits all the right notes, when I’m hungry and want salty yet refreshing

In my holiday version of the wedge salad, I add pomegranates and chopped pistachios for a festival holiday feel, bringing yet one more texture and color to the mix.

In a wedge salad summer version, I use fresh tomatoes and possibly some hard boiled eggs and fresh corn.

Sometimes I use a blue cheese vinaigrette; sometimes I make a homemade creamy blue cheese dressing.

I like to throw blue cheese crumbles in my shallot vinaigrette, but sometimes I long for a creamy blue cheese dressing like the one I made here. 

I  used a gorgonzola cheese which is an Italian blue cheese, a little more crumbly,  but not really that much different from other blue cheese.

What I Most Love about the Classic Party Wedge and Blue Cheese Dressing.

Iceberg lettuce gets a bad rap, and for so long has been the lettuce to make fun of, but I’m bringing it back to the table with gusto. The number one reason I love the wedge is that it’s can be a meal. It takes a long time to eat, and I like that. It can handle creamy dressings far better than most lettuces.

There’s a lot of crunch with the wedge and the bacon and a lot of umami satisfaction with the blue cheese. It’s also refreshing at the same time.

Iceberg lettuce has a high water content yet doesn’t wilt easily. It can sit high on a plate smothered in blue cheese vinaigrette or blue cheese dressing and stay crisp. Or the wedge can be the  height of luxury with homemade blue cheese dressing.

It’s the perfect thing to serve at a party! Don’t you just love this slate plate? You can order it here.

Pin this

Assemble Your Own Party Wedge Salad

The great idea for a brunch, lunch or dinner, is to allow people to assemble their own wedge. You can set out a bowl of crumbly blue cheese next to the dressing. There are always people who hate the blue, so set out cheddar and ranch for them. Everyone can be happy.

You can serve individual wedge salads on a platter with dressing applied or on the side.

So tell me do you make a salad for your parties? I always do.

Similar Recipes from Spinach Tiger

• Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
• Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing
• Blue Cheese Purple Potatoes
• Blue Cheese/Apple Cole Slaw
• Blue Cheese Bacon Biscuit Sandwich
• Grilled Peach Salad with Blue Cheese

Print

The Wedge Salad Recipe with Variations for a Crowd

Classic Wedge Salad or Try it with a twist, with homemade blue cheese dressing, and various toppings, depending upon the season.

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 head iceberg lettuce
• blue cheese dressing Recipe Here
• 4 slices bacon Oven Baked Recipe
• 2 hard boiled eggs Recipe Here
• 1/4 cup pomegranate arils or chopped tomato
• 1/4 cup chopped pistachios
• 2 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese
• sliced radishes

Instructions

• Arrange wedges on platter or individual plates. Cut into 4 pieces for large sized servings or six pieces for party wedges.
• Top with dressing, followed by toppings.
• You can switch the toppings out as you see fit.
• Top with crumbled blue cheese.
• Serve immediately

The post The Blue Cheese Party Wedge Salad Recipe appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

I grew up eating only a few salad dressings that weren’t a vinaigrette.  I’m Italian and we only ate oil and vinegar on our nightly salad. When we did venture away from that it was blue cheese dressing when dining out.

My family believed that bottled dressings weren’t good enough or healthy enough, and frankly, they were salad snobs.   Most of the time the blue cheese dressing was served with the classic wedge salad, a creation from the 1950’s, where people weren’t afraid to eat bacon, cheese and sour cream. Then the 80’s came and people started getting nervous about fat. I never bought into that, but I do admit to pulling away from blue cheese dressing for a while.

Lately I’ve seen the return of the wedge and I started ordering it again as my hefty starter, but believe it or not I never made a wedge at home, until now, because this is my first and best blue cheese dressing. I do mention at the end of this post that you can make a wedge with a blue cheese vinaigrette as an easier option. I love both.

Blue cheese dressing is the epitome of salt, fat and acid or it should be. In fact, my secret to the very best of the blue cheese dressing (aside from a nice blue) is adding enough acid. I took three routes using worcestershire, lemon and vinegar. You can mix those up if you like, or skip the lemon and add more vinegar, but I had all three, so I used all three. I wanted to use a champagne vinegar but was out and the apple cider vinegar worked liked a charm.

The key will be to taste and make sure the dressing is a little bit tart and exciting. A good blue cheese shouldn’t be bland like a ranch dressing. Also know the blue cheese taste will become more profound as it chills.

What Blue Cheese Should You Use to Make the Best Blue Cheese Dressing?

There are three kinds of blue cheeses.

• Creamy
• Crumbly
• Firm

Crumbly blue works best like a Maytag or gorgonzola, which is what I used here.

Gorgonzola is an Italian blue cheese with a milder flavor than the very pungent blue cheese, although sometimes you may find a very strong one.   It’s great for eating by itself, pairing with apple or pear slices or topping on purple potatoes.

Make the blue cheese dressing jar a day or so ahead of your next dinner party and cut up smaller wedges and serve with tomato, bacon, and hard boiled egg for a classic or make this festive wedge if it’s holiday time. If you want to add extra color, radishes are nice as well as pomegranates.

Blue Cheese Vinaigrette.

One more note: Some days I like a simple blue cheese vinaigrette. This is perfect for the no mayo camp. Just mix olive oil, vinegar, dijon mustard) and add small crumbles of blue cheese.

More recipes using blue cheese from Spinach Tiger

More Salad Dressings from Spinach Tiger

Print

Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing

Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing, perfect for the wedge salad or for dipping.

Course Salad Dressing

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise.
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce.
• 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons blue cheese or gorgonzola cheese crumbled, divided – See notes
• 1 tablespoons white vinegar or apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Salt and pepper.

Instructions

• Mix together mayonnaise, milk, sour cream, worcestershire sauce, 1/3 cup blue cheese, and half vinegar, salt and pepper in blender.
• Taste for acidity and add more vinegar as necessary.
• Add in remaining blue cheese for a chunky dressing. You can choose to add all blue cheese to the blender if you want your dressing completely smooth.
• Taste, as some blue cheese is stronger than others and you may need to add more.
• Refrigerate at least four hours, ideally overnight.

Notes

Blue Cheese – Depending on the strength of your blue cheese you may need to add 1/2 cup. You will have to taste and then taste again after the dressing has been in fridge for a day.

The post My Secret to the Best Blue Cheese Dressing appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

The Creative Cooking Crew challenged us this month to a triple-Decker sandwich and that is how kale biscuits with bacon, beets and blue cheese was born.

The whole idea of a triple decker sandwich takes me back to childhood, deli’s, and club sandwiches. Club sandwiches always had bacon, and usually turky and tomato, three pieces of bread and cute tooth picks keeping each triangle together. I loved them.

While I no longer eat big fat club sandwiches, I still love bacon. My dilemma came from the challenge requirements. The ingredients must start with the same letter. So I started with bacon, which led to beets, which led to blue cheese, which led to biscuits. I even included butter lettuce. I got all my B’s in order and piled high, resulting in  a crunchy sandwich on a soft, fluffy biscuit.

I kept the beets raw and crispy. I decided to put a twist on the biscuit and added raw kale, which gives it a pretty green sprinkling. Bacon sandwiches have to have mayonnaise.  I made blue cheese mayonnaise to keep up with the B’s. It’s a great flavor combination.

This is one good bite of a biscuit sandwich. Crunchy, smoky bacon, earthy raw beets (aren’t they pretty), sultry blue cheese.

Please visit the Pinterest board or Foodalogue on Monday to see what the rest of the crew did.

Print

Kale Biscuits Sandwich with Bacon, Beets and Blue Cheese Mayonaise

Kale Biscuit with Bacon, Raw Beets, Blue Cheese

Course Bread

Cuisine American

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

Biscuit Sandwich

• 6 Kale biscuits
• 6 pieces butter Lettuce
• 12 pieces crispy bacon
• 12 slices of raw beets
• 6 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 6 tablespoon blue cheese

Kale Biscuits

• 2 cups soft wheat flour or all purpose
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped raw kale
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons cold butter
• 1 cup buttermilk
• pinch baking soda

Instructions

Sandwich

• Layer mayonnaise, lettuce, bacon, beets.

Kale Biscuits

• Mix all dry ingredients together. Whisk well.
• Add in kale. Mix well.
• Add in butter, and mix with pastry blender or hands until you have small pea size pieces.
• Add pinch of baking soda to buttermilk.
• Add in buttermilk and mix with wooden spoon. Dough will be sticky.
• Flour hands and pat down. Use extra large cutter and make six biscuits.
• Bake on cast iron or cookie sheet at 450 for 16 minutes.

The post Kale Biscuits Sandwich with Bacon, Beets and Blue Cheese Mayonnaise appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

If you need to have the perfect salad to offset a spicy Indian dinner, a grilled nectarine (or peach) salad with peachy vinaigrette and toasted almonds is perfect. Perfect because the juicy, sweetness of the fruit and the boost of flavor from the blue cheese works well with any rich, fatty food or spicy food. You can use nectarines or peaches, because they are practically the same fruit.

The difference between nectarines and peaches is basically the peach fuzz. Nectarines carry a recessive (no fuzz) gene and this is how nectarines have come to be. Did you know that sometimes a peach tree will produce a nectarine fruit and sometimes a nectarine tree will produce a few fuzzy peaches.

I intended this to be just a peach trio, but I planted a nectarine tree, and to my great surprise I got fruit the first year, against all odds and bad conditions. Armed with peaches and nectarines for my challenge, I made everything and took it to a dinner party where my neighbors, who are from India, were making Tandori chicken, Rice byriani and a very spicy green chile yogurt sauce. It was all delicious, and at the end of the night, hardly a bite of food remained.

This Peach salad was the star of the entire evening, even beating my peach tart and amazing skillet blueberry cobbler, not to mention the seconds and thirds of chicken and rice that people were eating. This salad was so good, that we all found ourselves fighting over the last few bites using our fingers to grab pieces out of the main bowl.

How to Grill Nectarines and Peaches.

The first thing I had to decide was how to cut the fruit. Keeping the skin on, I made knife cuts across the fruit all the way around and pulled each ring off. This results in beautiful pieces that have that gorgeous red ring in the center. I brushed them with a a mixture of olive oil and chile paste for a little zing and grilled at high heat about four minutes a side (you may have to do less, depending on the fruit). The recipe for grilling fruit is here.

Assembling the Salad

The most important thing in a salad is getting the dressing right and premixing. Nothing irks me more than to go to a nice restaurant and be served a salad with a dressing on the side. A salad must be tossed thoroughly with dressing, but not to much dressing, so it takes practice to get it right. I am absolutely adamant that a salad will never be as good with dressing on the side as a tossed salad, and I always toss my salad about twenty minutes ahead of the dinner.

Enjoy this peach salad with blue cheese and a peach vinaigrette at your next barbecue or along side a spicy chili.

Print

Grilled Nectarine or Peach Salad with Blue Cheese, Toasted Almonds, Peach Vinaigrette

A peachy salad with blue cheese, grilled fruit, perfect alone or as a side for a spicy dish.

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 2 peaches or nectarines
• chili paste
• 1 head Romaine lettuce
• 1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds
• 1 – 2 ounces of crumbled blue cheese
• grilled peaches found here

Peach Vinaigrette

• 1/4 cup mimosa champagne vinegar can use white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon peach jam or jelly
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup lemon olive oil can use regular olive oil
• sea salt
• freshly ground back pepper

Instructions

• Grill nectarines or peaches. If you don’t have a grill, place under broiler on high for five minutes.

Peach Vinaigrette

• Mix together vinegar, mustard and jelly. If you don’t have peach preserves or jam, you can use fresh peach slices, grilled first.
• Mix peach preserves with vinegar and mustard. Mix in mini blender.
• Slowly add the olive oil, while whisking, or put all in jar and shake.

Assemble Salad

• Wash and dry romaine lettuce. Tear into pieces about 2 inches or bite size.
• Mix lettuce with crumbled blue cheese and most of toasted almonds, saving both a little bit of blue cheese and almonds for garnish on top.
• Add dressing, just enough to wet the lettuce, using hands.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Arrange grilled fruit on top with a little crumbled blue cheese and toasted almonds.
• Serve.

Notes

Note: This salad is also delicious served at room temperature and is great for taking to a pot luck or dinner. Dress salad, and garnish with fruit, cheese and nuts right before serving.

The post Grilled Peach Salad with Blue Cheese, Toasted Almonds, Peach Vinaigrette appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

The green apple brings a tart crunch, while the cabbage, one super healthy vegetable,  is the deliverer of all this salad goodness.

The blue cheese takes what might be an ordinary cole slaw and makes it dinner party presentable, especially for dishes that are a bit plain, like a roasted piece of fish or a pork loin. I used Ile de France Roquefort which is quite salty and tangy, so a little goes a long way, but even Doug,  who doesn’t like blue cheese,  totally loved this cole slaw.

Let’s see. When we got married, he told me no beets, no sweet potatoes, and if you were to ask him now, he would name a few of his all time favorite dishes here that have beets and sweet potatoes, but I never thought I could ever get him to eat blue cheese.

This had me contemplating flavor profiles this week, and taste buds and why one might like an ingredient in this dish, but hate it in that dish or hate it when eaten by itself, but love it when it’s mixed with other ingredients. The other ingredients he hates are mustard and mayonnaise.

Dressing for Blue Cheese Cole Slaw

This dressing is a 60/40 ratio of dijon mustard and mayonnaise and he still loved it. This gets even funnier. The person that gave me the cabbage came for dinner and he was clear that he was not a fan of cabbage and, yet, he liked the cole slaw. This confirms what I’ve always believed.

There are no unworthy foods. There are unworthy recipes and unworthy executions. We’ve all had stinky cabbage, and green apples that were just too tart, and salads we couldn’t eat because they were too vinegary. This blue cheese cole slaw with green apple is a worthy recipe, an easy recipe, a healthy recipe and of very tasty and perfect for summer.

A Few Tips on Making Cole Slaw

1.  Cabbage and celery sop up moisture. Make the cole a few hours in advance. It gets better.
2. The heat of the mustard which makes this cole slaw tends to get milder as the cabbage absorbs it. Go stronger than you think you should.
3. Cut FRESH cabbage yourself and cut to your own taste. I slice with a knife into larger shreds than you find in a bag. I think this method absorbs LESS liquid and I enjoy the crunch.
4. Feel free to skip the blue cheese and add in other flavorings such as dill or celery seed.
5.  Most cole slaw recipes have sugar and celery seed. I don’t make any salads with sugar, but feel free to add it if you must.
6.  Use this recipe more as a guide. You might need more dressing, but before you add more, use your hands and thoroughly mix. The cabbage takes less dressing than you think.
7.  Ask yourself what you are serving this with. If it’s topping a pork sandwich, chop it up much finer. If it’s for a side salad, leave it nice and chunky as I did. You can add a few herbs on top to aid your presentation. Simply, make it your own.

So tell me, what is the one ingredient you used to hate and then a dish changed your mind?

Print

Blue Cheese Cole Slaw with Green Apple

Bue cheese cole slaw with green apple, is crunchy, tasty and perfect side for summer grilling.

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 small head cabbage
• 2 carrots
• 1 small green apple
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup Dijon mustard
• 1 shallot chopped very fine
• 2 tablespoons of crumbled blue cheese I used Ile de France Roquefort

Instructions

• Shred the cabbage and carrots. Mix together.
• Dice apple, leaving skin on.
• Mix mayonnaise, mustard and shallot together.
• Mix dressing with cabbage mixture.
• Add most of the blue cheese, mix again.
• Add remaining blue cheese for garish on top.

The post Blue Cheese Cole Slaw with Green Apple appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

How do you marry an 8,000 year old root from South America with a cheese from France or Italy? I’m talking about purple potatoes and blue cheese (or gorgonzola).

Both foods are sexy and have a story. The rumor is that blue cheese was discovered in a cave after a young man left his curds and whey for romantic flight. When he returned four days later, the cave possessed just the right amount of damp and dark,  and he was thrilled to find blue cheese.

The purple potatoes have been around for over 8000 years flourishing in the Andean regions of Peru, Bolivia and Equador. Unlike white potatoes, they contain anthocyanin, an antioxidant that boosts the immune system and may prevent certain cancers.  Some farmers have found a way to make purple potatoes in America as purple food is becoming ever so popular. Watch out for purple carrots, purple cauliflower, purple sweet potatoes and all sorts of purple cabbages and lettuce.

Spinach Tiger loves her greens, but purple foods are majestic when it comes to nutrition.

How do you cook them, you ask?  The same way you would make white potatoes, but let’s have a little fun.

These were little gems of potatoes and perfect for a party. I bought these the same week I received the Roquefort from Ile de France. It seemed natural that they should meet.

The Process

I kept the recipe fairly simple.  I simply roasted and removed them from the skin, while still warm. I mixed the potatoes with a little butter, tiny bit of hot milk and sour cream, and a big squeeze of lemon, some salt, pepper and placed them back in their skins. I topped with crumbled blue cheese and rebaked until the cheese was melted. Top with sour cream.

You could take this in many directions,  replacing blue cheese with Cheddar or Gruyere, adding dill or rosemary adding bacon, or chives etc.

I was surprised that the potatoes were different colors, ranging from lavender to sapphire blue to deep purple. I mixed all of them up in one bowl to get one uniform color, but it could have been fun to put out a different colored tray.

After the potatoes are mixed, they are put back into their shells.

Top with blue cheese. You can see you don’t need a lot.

Top with sour cream and a special herb or sea salt. I used Nori Sea Salt.

Other Purple Potato Recipes You Might Enjoy:

Lemon Dijon Roasted Purple Potatoes with Shallots

Purple Potato Frittata

Herby Purple Potatoes  from the Purple Foodie

Purple Smashed Potatoes from Food Wanderings

Blue Cheese and Bacon Purple Potatoes from Eat Drink Smile

Print

Purple Potatoes with Blue Cheese

Recipe for appetizer of blue cheese stuffed purple potatoes.

Servings 6

Ingredients

• Recipe for Purple Potatoes with Blue Cheese
• 6 Small purple potatoes
• 1/4 cup sour cream plus more for garnish
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• juice 1/2 lemon
• 2 tablespoons blue cheese
• sea salt pepper
• nori sea salt optional

Instructions

• Roast potatoes at 400 degrees until done (about 20 - 30 minutes) depending on size
• Cut in half and scoop out flesh of potato. Mix with butter, sour cream, salt, pepper, lemon juice.
• Put back into shells. Top with blue cheese. Bake until the blue cheese is melted.
• Dress with dollop of sour cream. I topped with nori sea salt, an option).

The post Purple Potatoes with Blue Cheese appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Blue cheese. People either love it or hate it. I’m in the love it category, enjoying it since childhood. It’s one of those exotic cheeses that seems to go in and out of fashion in America but I’ve seen more and more restaurants incorporating blue cheese into their savory dishes and lighting the taste buds back up for this very flavorful, tangy salty selection.

My favorite way though to eat Roquefort is on a cheese plate with some fruit. The salty tangy creaminess is balanced well against pears and apples. This is a very simple, clean little nibble that will happily start any dinner party or join a parade of party food. This  can also double for a dessert and is especially festive at the holidays. In one rendition I candied the walnuts and even sprinkled some gingerbread crumbs.

Roquefort is like champagne; it has a protected designation of origin and by European law only bears the name when aged  in the natural Combalou caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon. France has Roquefort; Italy has Gorgonzola, both very loved and popular blue cheeses, but there is another distinction aside from geography. Roquefort is a raw sheep’s milk cheese and Gorgonzola comes from cow’s milk.  I have a big love for sheep’s milk cheese so I’m more likely to choose Roquefort whenever I want blue cheese. This particular selection from Ile de France is outstanding. You can see details for their generous give away below. Although I was sent this cheese complimentary, I only agreed to write about it if it was something I truly love.  If you read the history of Ile de France cheese, you will find out some fascinating cheese facts. They were the first company to import Brie cheese to America in 1936 and that was one happy day as far as I’m concerned.

Roquefort is a beautiful cheese with gorgeous blue color. Very tangy and salty. A little goes a long way, which is exactly what I want in a party food or a dessert.

The balancing act here is the sweetness of the pear or apple and the crunchy texture of the walnut with that special note of Roquefort. It’s not just a beautiful tray to set out either before a meal, after a meal or at party. It is a special taste of flavors.

Print

Pears with Roquefort and Ile de France Give Away

A great way to use blue cheese and pears, for appetizer or a fruit and cheee dessert course.

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 2 Pears sliced thin-to medium (can also use apples or a combination)
• squeeze of lemon over each pear or apple slice
• Roquefort Cheese 1 teaspoon per pear slice
• Walnuts toasted (one half per slice)
• Pomegranate arils 2-3 per pear slice
• Gingerbread crumbs
• to sprinkle  optional

Instructions

• Prepare right before serving, Slice pears.
• Squeeze lemon juice. top just the tip with cheese, walnut, pomegranate. If you want to have some fun, top with some crumbled gingerbread cookie.

The post Pears with Roquefort Appetizer appeared first on Spinach Tiger.