When attending a potluck dinner, I try to bring a dish that does not need to be heated as there are usually so many others that do I’m afraid mine won’t fit into the oven. For the 31st annual Davis Family Pig Roast, I decided to bring a salad but needed one that didn’t requre squirting dressing on top since that would hold up the (very long) food line.
I settled on a recipe titled 7 Layer Salad but I of course turned it into my own creation with all sorts of plant life uncalled for in the original version. And it did not suffer for it. So feel free to play around and adjust this one to your tastes. And don’t freak out about the Miracle Whip like I did when I read the recipe. It actually tastes really good. But if you can’t stand the idea of Miracle Whip on salad, you could probably squirt some ranch on top to no ill effect. Except you’d lose the sweetness and that is always a downer in my book.
Update 11-24-09: I’ve now made this salad several times and the recipe below includes revisions I’ve made over time. It always goes over very well at potlucks. I’m bringing it to Thanksgiving (second year in a row) in a couple days.
7 Layer Salad
Adapted slightly from Recipe Zaar
Dressing
2 cups Miracle Whip
1/4-1/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons sugar
Whisk dressing ingredients together, starting with 1/4 cup milk and adding more if dressing is not as thin as you like. I like putting my salad in a 9×13 dish rather than a bowl so that you can get all the way to the bottom each time you scoop out the salad. If you decide to do this too, it makes it easier to spread the dressing if you add more milk. You don’t necessarily have to add any milk if you don’t have far to spread it, such as in a trifle dish.
Salad
Layer the ingredients, in this order, in your dish. Use a clear dish for a pretty presentation
1 head lettuce, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup frozen peas, uncooked
Dressing
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup crumbled bacon
Directions
Cover the dish with plastic and refrigerate overnight before serving.
Veronica's Cornucopia 