Diner Dinner Wedge Salad

Firm, dense heads of lettuce with thick and sturdy leaves work best for wedge salads as they hold their shape and a generous amount of dressing and toppings. Iceberg, romaine, radicchio and cabbage are good candidates, rather than softer varieties, such as leaf lettuce.

Go full retro with creamy, zesty and pink (of course!) Thousand Island Dressing and a load of toppings on a crispy iceberg wedge. This version of the diner classic dressing is on the tangy side, which balances the rich toppings of bacon, egg and butter-toasted bread crumbs just right. And this is not the time to skimp on dressing! A dense wedge of iceberg needs a good douse of dressing so use the whole batch for 4 servings. Add chicken or ham for a heartier main-course salad.

1 tbsp (15 mL) butter

½ cup (125 mL) coarse fresh bread crumbs 1 head iceberg lettuce

Thousand Island Dressing (recipe on page 92) 4 radishes, thinly sliced

¼ English cucumber, diced

1 cup (250 mL) grape tomatoes, sliced

4 slices bacon, crisply cooked and chopped 2 hard-boiled eggs, diced

1 cup (250 mL) diced cooked chicken or ham (optional)

1 Melt butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add bread crumbs and toast, stirring often, for about 5 minutes or until crumbs are golden and crisp. Transfer to a bowl and let cool.

2 Trim stem from lettuce and peel o loose outer leaves. Cut head vertically into quarters. Trim out tough core, if desired, leaving a thin portion to keep the wedge intact (if the core isn’t large you can leave it in). Arrange lettuce wedges with the rounded side down on serving plates.

3 Pour one-quarter of the dressing over each lettuce wedge. Scatter radishes, cucumber, tomatoes, bacon, eggs and chicken (if using) overtop. Sprinkle with toasted bread crumbs and serve immediately.

Serves 4