The Best Baby Spinach Salad

SOUND BITE

Drizzled with a sweet-and-savory, can’t-get-enough-of-it warm bacon dressing, I’ve been devouring this spinach salad for decades and plan to do so until my nursing home refuses to make it for me.

Selecting Bacon

Classic spinach salad with warm bacon dressing? Now that’s a salad worth getting excited about.

It’s the perfect balance of fresh greens, mandarins, sliced hard-cooked eggs and that rich and tangy, warm dressing that ties it all together.

But before you grab just any bacon for this recipe, what are the bacon basics?

First: Regular vs. Thick Cut
Thick-cut bacon is meatier and holds up well in salads where you want bigger, heartier bites. Regular-cut bacon cooks faster, plus you can break it up into small pieces for evenly distributed bacon in every bite. Bottom line here is use your favorite. Both work great.

Second: Sodium & Nitrates
Watching your sodium intake? Reduced-sodium bacon is an option, but let’s be honest—it’s still salty (because…it’s bacon), just slightly less so.

Then there’s nitrate-free bacon. It skips synthetic preservatives in favor of natural ones, like celery powder. If cleaner ingredients matter to you, it’s worth considering and I see it sold everywhere.

And finally, there’s turkey bacon.
While some people think turkey bacon is for the birds, I think it has its place. But not here.

This warm dressing relies on bacon drippings for fat and flavor. Turkey bacon just doesn’t have the fat content for the job. It’s like trying make gravy with nothing in the pan.

And a spinach salad without warm bacon dressing is like a BLT without the B.

Just LT: Lacking Taste.