Vintage Style Blue Cheese Wedge Salad (with Homemade Dressing)

Blue cheese wedge salad is a delicious, bright, and colorful side dish. Channel some vintage vibes with this classic salad from the 1950s and 1960s. Made with a delicious and creamy homemade blue cheese dressing, it is a fun dish to add to your meal!

What is a Wedge Salad Made of?

While ingredients and recipes can vary, the quintessential wedge salad is made from a wedge of iceberg lettuce that is topped with a creamy blue cheese dressing.

Additional toppings include crispy bacon, diced tomatoes, diced red onion, and blue cheese crumbles.

History of the Wedge Salad

The first known printed recipe for wedge salad was in the 1916 recipe book Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing Dish Recipes by Marion Harris Neal. It started showing up in restaurants in the 1920s.

The wedge salad as we know it today (with blue cheese, bacon, and tomatoes) became popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Eventually, it started to fall out of popularity, but for some reason in the 1970s it found a home on the menus of steakhouses. To this day, it remains a fixture on steakhouse menus.

What Do You Pair with a Wedge Salad?

A wedge salad is typically served as a side dish, though some people like to eat it as a main dish.

Because it has such a lovely and bright presentation, wedge salads are nice to pair with meals that have a more plain appearance. For example, it is a great side dish to pair with a grilled chicken or steak.

How Do You Cut a Head of Lettuce for a Wedge Salad?

The first step is to remove the top layer leaves from the head of lettuce. The outer leaves tend to be slightly brown and it is best to reveal the fresher leaves on the inside.

Next, if there is any part of the stem remaining, cut it off so that the bottom of the stem is even with the head of lettuce.

Then cut the head of lettuce in half. Cut each of those halves in half again. At this point you will have four wedges of lettuce. If your head of iceberg lettuce is on the smaller side, you may want to stop there.

However, if you started with a large head of lettuce, cut each of the quarters in half so that you have eight wedges of lettuce. At this point, your lettuce wedges are ready to be dressed up.

Vintage Style Blue Cheese Wedge Salad

Ingredients:

For the Blue Cheese Dressing:

2/3 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1-2 tbsp fresh chives, chopped

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 clove of garlic, pressed

1/4 tsp salt

5 oz blue cheese (reserve some for sprinkling on top of lettuce wedge)

For the Salad Wedge:

1 head iceberg lettuce, cut into 4 wedges

1 tomato, diced

1 red onion, diced

4 strips cooked bacon, crumbled

Method:

Combine all ingredients for the dressing in a bowl. Whisk to combine.

Place a wedge of iceberg lettuce on a small plate. Drizzle salad dressing on top of the wedge.

Sprinkle tomato, onion, and bacon on top.

Top with some blue cheese crumbles.

Repeat until on each wedge of lettuce.