This delicious dinner will only take a few minutes to prepare and the family will devour it! Over rice, please.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 35 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- ½ pound sliced bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch strips
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup minced onion
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ⅓ cup apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoons Dijon mustard
- ⅓ cup bacon drippings
- 2 teaspoons water
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper
- salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 pound baby spinach leaves
- 1 (15 ounce) can black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
- 12 white button mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 1 cup sliced cherry tomatoes
Instructions
- Cook and stir bacon with 1/4 cup vegetable in a skillet over medium heat until bacon is browned and crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. Pour bacon into a strainer set over a bowl, reserving 1/3 cup of bacon drippings.
- Return skillet to medium heat. Stir onions and salt into the skillet; cook and stir until onions are golden brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic; cook, stirring constantly, until garlic is fragrant and golden, 1 minute.
- Stir cider vinegar, rice vinegar, 1/2 cup water, sugar, and Dijon mustard into onion mixture. Increase heat to medium-high and simmer.
- Whisk 2 teaspoons water and cornstarch in a bowl. Gradually pour cornstarch mixture into onion mixture and whisk until thickened. 3 to 4 minutes. Reduce heat to low.
- Drizzle reserved 1/3 cup bacon drippings into onion mixture, whisking constantly. Add cooked bacon and stir to combine. Season with cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper to taste.
- Combine spinach, black-eyed peas, mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes in a large bowl; toss to combine. Drizzle hot bacon dressing over spinach mixture; toss quickly and serve immediately.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 430 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 34 g |
| Cholesterol | 26 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Protein | 12 g |
| Saturated Fat | 9 g |
| Sodium | 674 mg |
| Sugars | 18 g |
| Fat | 28 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I used to see a warm spinach salad with bacon dressing on restaurant menus but not for quite a while and I miss it! I am glad I came across Chef John’s version because it is just as delicious if not more so! There were just 3 of us so I cut the dressing in half. The only change I made was I didn’t have black-eyed peas so I used yellow-eye beans instead . So good- my mom added leftover chicken to hers. Thanks!
The dressing is sublime! I didn’t have black eyed peas so I put some walnuts in instead. I also omitted the quarter cup of oil. I also used erythritol instead of sugar as I’m sugar free. Usually I make a spinach salad with boiled eggs, but didn’t have enough. When I make this again, I will try it with the black eyed peas. Sorry, no photo. We ate it lol
This is an excellent sweet-sour bacon dressing recipe. I used White Northern beans instead of the Black-eyed peas, but will try it next time I have those in my cupboard. Not terribly time consuming to make either.
Hot bacon dressing is amazing followed it exactly.
The dressing was little more on the sweet side than I would like. But will definitely make it again, cutting down on the sugar a bit. I did add some hard-boiled eggs for more protein and red onion to give it more color and flavor. All and all, a keeper.
So very good! I used green onions & chopped walnuts too!
Absolutely yummy! I put half the sugar, put diced hard boiled eggs and tomatoes on top instead of peas and mushrooms. Had sautéed shrimp on the side. The whole family loves it, even the picky ones.
I made this as written, & my husband thought it “tasted just like uptown”…high praise, indeed! yummm
I made this for company last night and everyone thought it was great. We bought chicken wings and had strawberry shortcake. It was a perfect meal. There is a good bit of prep for this salad, so I would get that over with in the morning and just reheat the dressing and throw the bacon in at the last minute. Some thought it too sweet, my group did not.
didn’t change anything. This was absolutely tasty.
Another great recipe from Chef John. I have been cutting the sugar down to 1/3 cup to suit my families tastes and am considering going with a bit more corn starch next time. This works well over any spinach salad, or just a bunch of baby spinach alone.
Great dressing!
My family loved it. I used 1/2 the sugar and next time I will reduce the amount of bacon drippings at the end by at least 1/2. Otherwise it was fantastic!
Made the bacon dressing yesterday for my own spinach salad. I am diabetic so I substituted Splenda for the sugar. It was the best bacon dressing I’ve ever had, restaurant or homemade. Thank you, Chef John!
I used mandarin oranges, fresh sliced mushrooms, hard boiled egg, pickled beets, feta cheese and red onions with the spinach salad. This salad was delicious with the hot bacon dressing!
Really delicious salad! 1 lb of spinach leaves is a heluva lot of salad… we used about half that and it was still too much salad for 2 people. More bacon would not harm this. A bit less vinegar might be good for those sensitive to acidity. Keep your dressing nice and hot if you want those leaves to wilt.
Followed exactly and found the recipe much too sweet for my taste so I will cut the sugar down by half
Perfect! I have been trying to find a recipe that was like the fancy salad that you get at those expensive steak houses! I also loved the pre made refrigerated one that they did have available and now no longer. This was perfect and the flavor was spot on! Thank you so much!
I used this dressing with basswood buds instead of spinach. I also added shrimp, peas, dried cherries and sesame seeds. it was a crowd pleaser. I had just needed the dressing recipe. it was fantastic!
I substituted yellow mustard for Dijon! My salad consisted of grilled chicken, boiled eggs, toasted almonds, strawberries and scallions! ABSOLUTELY AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS!!!
Delish! We will be making this again. Used 2 shallots instead of onions. And 2T honey and 1/4 c Splenda instead of sugar. Added some crumbled Gorgonzola after tossing in the dressing. Very good instructions. Easy to follow. YUMMMMY!!