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We all love a good Caesar salad or garden salad but sometimes you need to mix things up in a retro way! This classic 7 layer salad is the perfect way to do so – you can customize and alter it however you like, allowing you to make it your own.
For more great salad recipes, try my Best Basic Tossed Salad or a Shrimp Salad.
Table of Contents
7 Layer Salad
This recipe for 7 layer salad is less of a precise recipe and more of a general guide for building that salad that we all ate at every Tupperware party and baby shower when we were kids in the 80’s. I grew up on this salad!
The key thing to take away from this recipe is the idea of staggering your salad ingredients vertically to create a satisfying bite every single time. My version simple MUST have boiled eggs in it, some versions don’t. I have also seen chopped ham, there are so many different ways to make this salad your own.
7 Layer Salad Ingredients
Don’t forget to look at the recipe card at the bottom of the page for all of the ingredient amounts needed here.
• Bacon, diced, and cooked until crisp and drained on paper towels
• Iceberg lettuce, rinsed, dried, and chopped
• Red onion
• Package of frozen green peas, thawed
• Hard-boiled eggs
• Shredded cheddar cheese
Dressing
•Mayonnaise
• Sour cream
• White sugar
• Parmesan cheese
• White vinegar
How To Make A 7 Layer Salad
Start by whisking together the dressing ingredients, then set them aside. Now let’s build the 7 layers!
- Layer 1: In a trifle dish, add a layer of chopped lettuce to the bottom, covering it completely.
- Layer 2: Chop up the red onion and add in on top of the lettuce layer, covering it completely.
- Layer 3: Add in the package of peas that have now thawed. I recommend draining any excess water from the bag first. The peas should cover the onions completely.
- Layer 4: Spread the dressing on top of the peas, ensuring you cover them completely. Use a spatula to make sure it’s spread out well.
- Layer 5: Add chopped eggs on top of the dressing layer until fully covered.
- Layer 6: This is the cheese layer, using the shredded cheese, sprinkle it all over the eggs until they are well covered.
- Layer 7: Add chopped bacon as the final layer, covering the cheese layer completely.
Now place the trifle dish in the fridge until you are ready to serve.
Do You Have To Use The Dressing Used In This Recipe?
The dressing used in this recipe is simple and delicious and has that retro flavor we all love that comes from combining mayo and sour cream along with some parmesan cheese and sugar of course.
However, don’t feel like you have to use the dressing given here – you could just as easily replace it with a store-bought dressing or just a simple vinaigrette made with your favorite oils and vinegar.
If you do deviate from this recipe, try and pair the flavors in your dressing with your chosen ingredients. The dressing used here works really well with all sorts of different flavors, but if you tried to force a blue cheese dressing onto every salad, you would quickly discover just how contrasting certain flavors can be.
Do You Have To Be Really Strict With The Layers?
This recipe is called a 7 layer salad for a reason – it utilizes some artful layering to not only evenly spread the ingredients throughout the salad but it also helps to combine different ingredients together so that they work well.
For example, the bacon and cheese on top not only look really good and inviting but also provides the correct salty flavor profile at the very top of the salad. The same thing is true for the lettuce and onion being at the bottom – it not only gives the salad structural integrity but also gives you all of the satisfying crunch that you want.
Saying that, however, feel free to play around with it and do whatever you like with your salad organization. After all, it’s your meal!
How to Serve the Salad
You simply take a scoop out of the salad, going all the way down to the bottom, getting every layer and place it on a plate!
It will have the dressing in a layer that you can then mix into on your own plate as you wish.
Looking for more delicious Salad recipes? Try these out:
• Creamy Bacon Cauliflower Salad
Hope you enjoy!
Karlynn
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7 Layer Salad
Ingredients
- 1 pound bacon diced and cooked, drained on paper towels
- 1 head iceberg lettuce rinsed, dried, and chopped
- 1 red onion diced
- one 10 ounce package frozen green peas, thawed
- 8 large hard-boiled eggs sliced
- 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
Dressing
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- ⅔ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1-2 tablespoons white vinegar to taste
Instructions
- Whisk together the dressing ingredients. Get a trifle dish.
- Place the lettuce in the bottom of the dish.
- Add the red onion as the next layer.
- Add the peas as a layer.
- Spread the dressing on top of the peas.
- Place a layer of chopped hard-boiled eggs.
- Place a layer of cheese
- Place the bacon on top.
- Refrigerate until serving.
All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Made this recipe?
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Please rate this recipe in the comments below to help out your fellow cooks!
Sethares Kerry says
Can fresh raw peas be used instead?
Nancy Belew says
Is the Parmesan fresh or in a can?
LISA A BENNETT says
how far in advance can you make this before serving?? Im going to make for Christmas!
Michael says
My 7 layer salad has celery instead of eggs and scallions instead of a red onion. I do like the sound of your dressing though. I’ve always just used that light Miracle Whip. Great, now I want salad.
Jillian says
I am obsessed with this salad! I think I may have just found my new favorite salad. I hope my Spinach/Goat Cheese/Fruit Salad takes the news okay.
JENNIE BAKER says
Our FAMILY L O V E S this salad. We use celery over the onions…but every thing else is the same ….. sooo..nummy