Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing

Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing is a classic salad made with a vinegarette that uses bacon drippings instead of oil. 

Some days I feel like everything old is new. Just like this classic Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing. My Mom used to make this salad for special occasions and it always screamed fancy to me which also made me think it was difficult to make. Truth is that’s it’s not difficult – at all! In fact, it’s an easy salad for any weeknight dinner.

I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to share this recipe. But now that I have, it’s going to make an appearance on my dinner table on a regular basis. I cooked my eggs in my Instant Pot in just five minutes. (Click here to see my post about the perfect IP eggs.) I opened a bag of prewashed spinach and a 1/2 pint of pre-sliced mushrooms and all I really had to cook was the bacon. So with a few grocery store “helpers” this is a quick, easy and delicious salad. And did I say that you might even want a nice slice of French bread to soak up all that delicious bacon dressing once the salad is gone?

Pro Tip: Here’s a tip I learned recently on cooking bacon in the oven. Use a cookie sheet and a large piece of aluminum foil. Preheat the oven to 375°, crinkle the foil into a ball and then stretch it out to fit the cookie sheet. Lay the bacon on the crinkled foil and cook it for 15-20 minutes (make it longer if you like really crispy bacon).

You can assemble this salad ahead of time, but add the dressing right before serving while the bacon drippings are still warm.

Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing

Traditional Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing is a classic salad made with a vinegarette that uses bacon drippings instead of oil. 

• Author: krazykitchenmom
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: 4 side-salad servings
• Category: Salad
• Cuisine: American

Ingredients

• 4 cups fresh baby spinach
• 1/2 pint white button mushrooms – sliced
• 3 hard-boiled eggs – quartered
• 6 slices of bacon – cooked crispy and crumbled
• 2 TBS bacon drippings from cooked bacon
• 1/3 cup red wine or apple cider vinegar
• 2 TBS sugar
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped shallot

Instructions

1. Cook the bacon and reserve the bacon drippings.
2. Add bacon drippings, vinegar, sugar, dijon, and shallot to a mason jar and shake until it’s mixed.
3. Toss the spinach, eggs, crumbled bacon in a large bowl and add the warm bacon drippings.

Notes

You can assemble this salad ahead of time, but add the dressing right before serving while the bacon drippings are still warm.