This Overnight Green Salad is an oldie but a goodie. It is the perfect salad when entertaining because you make it the night before your dinner. The flavors meld together in the refrigerator throughout the evening and creates a delicious salad that gets eaten up every time I make it.
You probably have all the ingredients for this salad in your refrigerator right now, iceberg lettuce, bacon, cheddar cheese, frozen peas, broccoli or cauliflower bits, tomatoes, and eggs. The great thing is getting everything put together the night before and letting it sit in the refrigerator. All you need to do is pull it out and uncover it about 20 minutes before serving. So delicious!
How to Make Overnight Green Salad
1. Make the dressing and set aside. The dressing has mayonnaise, miracle whip, sugar and a little vinegar. Place the mayonnaise, and Miracle Whip in a small bowl. Add the sugar, spices and mix with a wire whisk. Add a splash of white wine vinegar to give it a nice contrast to all the sweet. Sprinkle in a dash of salt and pepper to give it another depth of flavor.
2. Cut up the bacon into small pieces and fry in a sauce or fry pan. Take the bacon out of the package and place on a cutting board. Cut across the strips of bacon in 1/4 inch slices. Use your fingers to separate the chunks of bacon and put it into a hot pan. This takes about 15 minutes to cook. You can leave it to cook as you prepare other items for your salad. Set your timer and stir the bacon every 3-4 minutes. When it reaches the crispy level you like, use a slotted spoon to pull the pieces out of the hot grease and place on several stacked paper towels to drain.
3. Place 6 eggs in a sauce pan with a lid. Bring the pan to boil with the lid on. Once the steam escapes the lid and it rattling, turn the heat off and start a timer for 10 minutes. Keep the lid on and set on on another burner that is off on the stove. When the timer goes off, the eggs are done cooking. Drain off the hot water immediately. Fill the pan with the eggs in it with very cold water. Keep draining the water every minute or so and filling the pan up with cold water again. You can also place ice cubes in the pan of water to cool the eggs as soon as possible. By getting the eggs to cool off quickly you will reduce a black or green ring from forming around the yolk.
Once the eggs are cool and easy to handle, peel each each egg and slice into small pieces. I really like using this egg slicer. After placing the boiled egg in this slicer, I put the egg in my hand and slice it into quarters. Put all these pieces in a bowl and set aside.
Do you know how to responsibly dispose of grease?
4. How to dispose of bacon grease. Did you know you should not pour bacon grease down the drain. It will cool off and coat your pipes. This will lead to backed up water into your drain and sink.
While the grease is hot, pour it into a smaller heat resistant container. Let it cool to room temperature and then spoon the grease into a plastic bag and throw it away. You can also put this plastic bag in your freezer and use when making biscuits and gravy. It is the best beginning to a beautiful béchamel sauce.
5. While the bacon is cooking, cut the iceberg lettuce into small but eatable pieces. I cut the head in half and then cut each half into slices. Then I cut across the slices going both directions to make lettuce pieces about the size of a quarter. I like it when my salad it already in small pieces so I do not have to cut it up once I serve it.
Lay all the pieces into a 13 x 9 glass dish. You want everyone to see all the beautiful layers of this salad. Some people ask if you can serve this in a bowl. I like how much space there is in a 13 x 9 pan to load up the bacon, and other delicious layers. I do not like to dig deep down for my salad.
6. Place spoonfuls of dressing on about eight spots on the lettuce. Use a plastic spatula to spread the dressing so it is evenly spread over all the lettuce.
7. Put the frozen peas in the microwave for 30 seconds. The peas need to cook just long enough to get everything separated in the bag. I pour the frozen peas over the lettuce with the dressing on it. The peas will thaw overnight and it keep the lettuce nice and cold.
Use firm tomatoes in this salad.
8. I like to use firm tomatoes for this salad. Since they will be sitting in the refrigerator overnight, I do not want them to be too juicy and turn everything to mush. Cut the tops off and the bottoms off. Then slice the tomato into 1/4 inch slices. Cut one direction and then turn your cutting board a quarter turn and cut the other direction. Now you have beautiful cubes of tomatoes to spread over the peas.
9. Cut the broccoli into very small pieces. I cut the head of broccoli off from the stalks. Then I break off bigger stalks and cut the stems off just under the florets of the broccoli. I keep breaking the florets off so they are small and easy to eat without cutting. Spread these over the tomatoes.
10. Spread the cooked bacon evenly over the tomatoes and then cover with hard boiled egg pieces.
11. Grate the cheddar cheese on the small side of the box grater. You can always buy cheese that has been grated, but it is coated with a powder to keep it from sticking together. I like grating the cheese right before I use it on the small side of the box grater. This gives the salad a fresh, just made taste.
10. Place a large piece of plastic wrap over the dish and place in the refrigerator for 24 hours before you want to serve it.
Let me know on Instagram or Pinterest if you make this. Post a picture and then tag me @dinasdiner. I want to know how it turns out.
Overnight Green Salad
1 Head Iceberg Lettuce
1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese
1 Pkg. Frozen Green Peas
1 Head Broccoli or Cauliflower
1 lb. Bacon
2 Tomatoes
6 Eggs
1 Cup Cheddar Cheese, grated
Dressing
1 Cup Mayonnaise
1 Cup Miracle Whip
2-3 Tbsp. Sugar
1/4 C. White Wine Vinegar
1/2 tsp. Onion Salt
1/2 tsp. Celery Salt
1. Make the dressing by adding ingredients and mixing well with a wire whisk or fork.
2. Cut up bacon into small pieces and fry until crisp.
3. Hard boil 6 eggs and chop into small pieces.
4. Cut iceberg lettuce into small pieces and place in a 13 x 9 pan.
5. Place eight spoonfuls of dressing on top of the lettuce and spread with a spatula. Sprinkle on grated parmesan cheese.
6. Spread frozen peas on top of dressing and lettuce.
7. Cut broccoli into very small pieces and spread on top of peas.
8. Cut tomatoes into cubes and spread on top of broccoli.
9. Sprinkle on boiled egg pieces.
10. Place cooked bacon on top of eggs.
11. Grate cheese and spread on top of bacon.
12. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight.
