Iceberg Wedge Salad

A delicious contrast of light, fresh iceberg lettuce and rich, salty bacon pieces with blue cheese dressing, this salad is outrageously good.

Also try tuna potato salad, Chinese chicken salad, Cobb salad or a chopped salad. For a heartier dish, crockpot pepper steak.

Why You’ll Love It

All-American classic: With its roots in classic American cuisine, an iceberg wedge salad gives a cozy sense of nostalgia and comfort. It’s recognizable but equally exciting.
It is so easy to make: This salad has simple ingredients and minimal prep work. Prep everything in advance and whip it up in minutes.
Pretty presentation: I love to serve wedge salads on a large plate with the toppings artfully arranged on top. It really looks incredible and is a fun alternative to a tossed salad.
Crowd-pleaser: People love a crunchy, crispy forkful of iceberg lettuce together with salty blue cheese and smokey bacon.
Restaurant quality: This blue cheese wedge salad delivers a 5-star dining experience at your dinner party.

Ingredients for a Classic Wedge Salad

A complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.

Iceberg lettuce: Choose a firm, whole head of iceberg lettuce with perfectly crisp leaves. You could also use romaine lettuce or cos in this recipe, but they won’t cut into wedges as beautifully as iceberg lettuce does.
Cherry tomatoes: Ripe red cherry tomatoes for a pop of lycopene.
Bacon: Use cooked bacon that is crumbled; regular (streaky) and Canadian (back) bacon are both great.
Chives: Fresh diced chives give a lovely, subtle onion taste.
Red onion: Diced red onion has a mild taste compared to white onion.
Blue cheese crumbles: You can buy these pre-crumbled or make your own crumbled blue cheese.
Blue cheese dressing: Here is my easy, homemade blue cheese salad dressing recipe. You could also use store-bought if you like.

How To Make A Wedge Salad

For more detailed instructions with weights and measurements, jump to the printable recipe card.

Prepare the lettuce: Prepare the lettuce by removing the outer leaves. Trim the stem of the head just slightly. Next, slice the head in half, and then in half again, making 4 wedges.
Top the lettuce: Top each wedge with the remaining ingredients, starting with the dressing and then tomatoes, bacon, red onion, and blue cheese crumbles.

Substitutions and Variations

Vegetarian: Leave the bacon off and add caramelized onion or soy bits instead. Salty, herbed croutons work well in an easy wedge salad recipe too.
Loaded wedge salad: Add extra toppings like diced avocado, toasted seeds and nuts. Charred corn and pomegranate seeds are delicious on top, too.
Add shrimp: Chop up some poached or pan-fried shrimp and add those to your salad. This goes really well with the salty bacon and blue cheese.
Zero blue cheese: Don’t like blue cheese? Switch the dressing in your wedge salad with ranch dressing and use feta cheese or fresh mozzarella instead of blue cheese.

Serving Suggestions

Appetizer: This salad makes the perfect appetizer. If serving it as part of a main, then start with this antipasto board or these salt and pepper pork chop bites.
Main: A delicious main to serve after a wedge salad is lasagna forno. Another one to try is this Italian meatloaf or how about stuffed rigatoni pasta pie? It is a sensational side with this tomahawk steak if you want to serve it as part of a main course. This iceberg salad makes a nice main course as is and on its own.
Dessert: After enjoying a rich wedge salad, finish with something light like a strawberry mousse tartlet.

How To Store Iceberg Wedge Salad

Store: If you have leftover salad components such as iceberg lettuce wedges, cherry tomatoes, bacon crumbles, diced chives, red onion, dressing, and blue cheese crumbles, store them separately in airtight containers. This helps to maintain their freshness and prevents them from becoming soggy.
Freeze: This salad is not a good recipe for freezing.