Melissa’s Light Wedge Salad

Melissa d'Arabian makes a wedge salad.

Fresh & simple, this wedge salad is a great side dish or light meal.

Melissa d’Arabian shows us her frugal gourmet skills with her lightened-up steakhouse staple.

The Wedge Salad. No one quite knows its origins, but it probably started in an American steakhouse somewhere – and we’ve been hooked ever since.

Now there’s no need to wait until you eat out to have this refreshing salad. Melissa d’Arabian shows us an inexpensive, low-calorie substitute that you can make right at home.

So what’s in a classic Wedge salad? It usually consists of iceberg lettuce, bacon bits, tomatoes, red onion, and a creamy blue cheese dressing. Sometimes it’ll even include blue cheese crumbles. Talk about a calorie bomb!

Melissa takes these same ingredients but adds flavor in a different way. First, she grills up the grape tomatoes for extra flavor. Second, instead of a creamy dressing, she makes blue cheese vinaigrette that cuts the fat and calories.

Everything else is exactly the same! Once you’ve made the vinaigrette and the tomatoes and bacon are cooked, assemble the salad.

If you’re serving as a side dish or appetizer, we recommend one wedge per person. If you’re looking for a fresh & easy light meal, I would say you could have two wedges per person.

Melissa’s Light Wedge Salad Ingredients:

  • 1 head iceberg lettuce, cut into 4 wedges
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 2 tablespoons blue cheese, crumbled
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • ½ pint grape tomatoes
  • 2 stripes bacon, cooked until crispy and crumbled
  • ¼ cup finely diced red onion

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