How to Make Seven Layer Salad
Seven Layer Salad is a time-honored recipe that seems to make the guest list at almost every baby and bridal shower, family reunion, potluck, picnic and outdoor cookout or barbecue. The idea is simple: Layer seven ingredients in a bowl, add dressing and garnish. The dish is easy to make, you can mix and match whatever ingredients you already have on hand, and it naturally lends itself innovation and adaptation.Fun fact: Seven Layer Salad (also known as Seven Layer Pea Salad) is generally said to have originated in the deep South, where black-eyed peas and other legumes are often used. The dressing is blended with sour cream, and always includes bacon--that part is never optional. Hence the Seven Layer salad is often cited as an example of "good salad gone wrong."
Transcript
-Hey everyone, I'm Judith. Well, today, I'm gonna showing you
how to make the king of all salad, a Seven
Layer Salad. So, what you'll need is 8 cups of
shredded romaine lettuce; 1 cup of frozen peas, which we've
thawed; 1 medium yellow pepper, which we've diced; 1 cup
of grape tomatoes, which we've halved;
1 cup sliced celery; 3/4 of a cup of nonfat
plain yogurt; 3/4 of a cup of low-fat mayonnaise; 2
teaspoons of cider vinegar; 1 to 2 teaspoons of sugar;
1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder; 1/4 teaspoon of salt; 1/4
of freshly ground pepper; 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese shredded;
and 1/2 fresh basil sliced. Alright, so first things first,
let's get out hands in with our layering of salads.
So, we're gonna put in our romaine onto the bottom
of our dish like so. With the romaine, we'll put
our sliced celery just gonna give it a nice crunch,
our lovely peas. I love peas in salad, fantastic flavor,
our cherry tomato is going there too
and just layer it nicely one on top of the
other like so, and last but not the least, our
lovely diced yellow pepper. Fantastic, and you can see all
those colors already, the red, the yellows, the greens, which
is exactly what we wanna see in a really good
salad, alright. So, we'll set that aside for just one
moment and let's make this dressing.
So, in goes our yogurt, our mayonnaise goes in there
too, the garlic powder, which is gonna give it a
lovely flavor, the sugar for that sweetness, pinch of salt
and pepper of course, and let's not forget our cider
vinegar.
So, as best we can, we will whisk that up
and get into a really nice consistency, and this is
gonna be a great dressing our 7 layer salad, and
this is fantastic salad to serve up at a barbecue
or at dinner party or just know at a lunch.
It's really, really great, one to be shared of course.
So as we whisk that away just get it nice
and smooth.
Alright, so, so let's smooth out that. So, for our
next step, we are just gonna pour this beautiful dressing
over the top of our dried ingredients that's looking creamy
and just gorgeous. Alright, so you can just spread it
over with your spatula, so it covers the top of
the salad like so, just beautiful, lovely.
Alright, so once that's spread on, last but not the
least, we can sprinkle this now with our lovely toppings.
So, we have some of our cheddar cheese, shredded cheddar
cheese and that's just gonna go right on top of
there. Oh, what an amazing salad like so.
Now, if you want to refrigerate this, which I suggest
you do, it's better this takes much better when all
the ingredients have stayed a little a while in the
fridge. So, I would do that for at least an
hour or a day if you can, but if not,
you can still eat at room temperature of course. So,
if you're gonna refrigerate it, then put the basil and
bacon on at the end just before you eat and
serve it, but if you're gonna serve it like
this room temperature, we can now sprinkle on this lovely
fresh basil like so. That's gonna give a lot of
flavor, here we go, and last but not the least
we have our crumbled bacon. So, we cook this. We
got them nice and crispy and that's broken down into
this crumbs and this is just gonna give a really
lovely texture and consistency and that crunch that you just
want in a salad right on top.
Fantastic, look at that. My, oh my, is that one
salad to share, so there you go. That's it, that's
how you make your Seven Layer Salad.
What You'll Need
- 8 cups shredded romaine lettuce
- 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
- 1 medium yellow bell pepper, diced
- 1 cup halved grape tomatoes, or quartered cherry tomatoes
- 1 cup sliced celery
- 1/2 cup sliced scallions
- 3/4 cup nonfat plain yogurt
- 3/4 cup low-fat mayonnaise
- 2 teaspoons cider vinegar
- 1-2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
- 3 strips cooked bacon, crumbled
Step By Step
1
Place lettuce in a large bowl. Layer peas, bell pepper, tomatoes, celery and scallions on top.
2
Whisk yogurt, mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar to taste, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a medium bowl until smooth. Spread the dressing evenly over the top of the salad (an offset spatula is handy for this, if you have one). Sprinkle with cheese, basil and bacon. Serve room temperature or chilled.
3
MAKE AHEAD TIP: Cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day. Sprinkle with basil just before serving.
Once you know how to make Seven Layer Salad, go wild and create your own variations.
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