The Best Salad Recipe

The BEST Salad recipe! If there is one salad recipe you need in your recipe box this is it, it’s my families favorite! It’s made with fresh romaine lettuce, two kinds of cheese, flavorful bacon, sweet grape tomatoes, crunchy toasted almonds, crisp croutons and it’s all tossed with a fresh, bright lemon vinaigrette.

The Best Salad Recipe {Salad de Maison}

• Servings: 9
• Prep Time 25 minutes
• Cook Time 20 minutes
• Total Time 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 10 oz bacon (10 slices)
• 3 large romaine hearts*, chopped into bite size pieces (from 22 oz, 18 oz once chopped)
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup (4 oz) shredded Swiss cheese
• 1/2 cup (1.4 oz) finely shredded parmesan cheese
• 1 1/2 cups croutons

Lemon Dressing

• 3/4 cup light olive oil**
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• 1 1/2 tsp honey
• 3/4 tsp salt, or to taste
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. To make the dressing: Add olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, dijon and honey to a jar. Add salt and pepper. Cover and seal with lid, shake to blend. If needed stir up honey if it sticks to bottom of jar. Chill in refrigerator while you prepare remainder.
2. To toast almonds: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread almonds into an even layer on a small baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven until just lightly golden brown, about 6 - 10 minutes, tossing once halfway through toasting. Remove from oven, set aside to cool.
3. To cook bacon: Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed 18 by 13-inch baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place bacon strips on baking sheet in a single layer. Bake in preheated oven until browned and nearly crisp (they'll should crisp up fully once cooled), about 13 - 18 minutes (time will vary based on thickness of bacon).
4. Transfer bacon to a plate lined with paper towels and let cool. Once cool chop bacon into small pieces.
5. To prepare salad: Rinse lettuce under cold water and run though a salad spinner (affiliate link) in batches to dry well. Add lettuce to a large serving bowl.
6. Add in almonds, bacon, tomatoes, Swiss cheese, and parmesan cheese. Shake dressing again then pour over salad, toss salad then add croutons and toss again. Serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

• *This is the center more crisp portion of romaine lettuce. You can usually buy these at most grocery stores, if not you can substitute 2 (9 oz) bags of pre-chopped romaine lettuce hearts or 1 1/2 heads romaine lettuce.
• **Regular olive oil can be substituted it just has a more noticeable flavor. Vegetable oil works too for an even milder flavor.