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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