This easy Southern spinach salad is a flavorful favorite that's perfect for dinner. Made with sweet caramelized onions, hard-boiled eggs, and plenty of crispy bacon, it gets its bold, unforgettable flavor from a hot bacon honey mustard dressing made from the reserved bacon grease. Poured straight from the skillet onto the salad while it's still warm, and the dressing is the star of the show! It's a longtime personal favorite and a Fueling a Southern Soul crowd-pleaser for good reason!
If you take one glance at the name or ingredients for this recipe, you may think you're crazy! That sounds so strange - hot bacon dressing?! But listen. Trust me on this one. This salad is everything you need but didn't know you needed. It has been a top recipe on Fueling a Southern Soul since it was first published, and for good reason!
As a Southern cook, my mom has taught me the way around a kitchen from an early age. Things like the art of fluffy buttermilk biscuits, how to crimp the edges of a flaky pie crust, or cooking canned green beans in the slow cooker. Learning how to make a hot bacon honey mustard dressing for a version of wilted lettuce salad is one of them. When she would make this salad growing up, we would devour it, and the same is true in our home today. It's one of my personal favorite comfort recipes.
Let me show you how to make it!
PRO TIP: A trick I always like to do that my mom did growing up is, if I am needing bacon bits, take kitchen shears and cut the raw bacon into little slices or bits straight into the skillet. That way they can fry up in bits and you won't have to crumble them after.
Reader Review
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"This was yummy. My family just loved it! We added a few extra s to the salad, like mandarin oranges and dried cranberries. We also added some grilled chicken. The dressing was out of this world and worked well! Thanks! I m going to keep playing around with the dressing in this recipe. For my family the vinegar was too strong. I think I ll slightly increase the amount of honey and slightly decrease the amount of vinegar and mustard."
- WEBSTER JEAN
This spinach salad with hot bacon-honey mustard dressing is best enjoyed immediately and hot. It doesn't taste as great at room temp (in my opinion) or cold and I don't like to keep this as leftovers. This usually works out well because there are never any leftovers anyway 🙂
Recipe
Spinach Salad with Hot Bacon-Honey Mustard Dressing
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
This easy Southern spinach salad is a flavorful favorite that's perfect for dinner. Made with sweet caramelized onions, hard-boiled eggs, and plenty of crispy bacon, it gets its bold, unforgettable flavor from a hot bacon honey mustard dressing made from the reserved bacon grease. Poured straight from the skillet onto the salad while it's still warm, and the dressing is the star of the show! It's a longtime personal favorite and a Fueling a Southern Soul crowd-pleaser for good reason!
Ingredients
Salad
- 10 Ounce Bag of Spinach
- ½ Pound of Bacon
- 1 Red Onion + 2 Tablespoons of Butter or Olive Oil
- 5 Hard-Boiled Eggs
Dressing
- Reserved Bacon Grease (at least ⅓ Cup)
- 2 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon Sugar or Honey
- 2 Tablespoons Dijon Mustard
- Salt & Pepper
Instructions
For the Salad
- In a skillet over medium-low heat, add 2 tablespoons of butter or olive oil to the pan. Thinly slice 1 red onion and add to the pan. Saute for 20 minutes to slowly caramelize the onion.
- While the onion is cooking, place another skillet on the stove over medium heat. Cut bacon into bits using kitchen shears directly into the skillet. Cook for about 10 minutes until the bacon bits are nice and crispy. Cook bacon until crispy. With a slotted spoon, spoon out the bacon when finished cooking and place it on a plate lined with paper towels to cool. Keep the bacon grease in the skillet for the dressing!
- Cook and prep hard-boiled eggs whichever way you prefer (this can also be done ahead of time and kept in the fridge until needed).
For the Dressing
- Using the reserved bacon grease from the bacon bits in the skillet, place it back on the stove over medium-low heat. Add in the rest of the dressing ingredients and whisk to thoroughly combine and hot. Add in a pinch of salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
To Assemble
- Add the spinach to a large bowl or dish.
- Add in the cooked bacon bits, caramelized onions, and hard-boiled eggs that have been diced.
- Once the dressing is hot and finished, pour it over the salad.
- Using a pair of tongs, toss to combine.
- Season with freshly cracked black pepper and serve immediately while warm.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- This is best served immediately while still hot and warm. This does not keep well for leftovers.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Salad
- Method: Cooking
- Cuisine: Salad
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 scoop
- Calories: 334
- Sugar: 4.4 g
- Sodium: 317.1 mg
- Fat: 27.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 6.5 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 15.4 g
- Cholesterol: 341.4 mg
Webster Jean says
This was yummy. My family just loved it! We added a few extra s to the salad, like mandarin oranges and dried cranberries. We also added some grilled chicken. The dressing was out of this world and worked well! Thanks! I m going to keep playing around with the dressing in this recipe. For my family the vinegar was too strong. I think I ll slightly increase the amount of honey and slightly decrease the amount of vinegar and mustard.
Heather says
I am so glad you liked it! Those additions sound delicious! Yes - definitely increase the honey a little to take away some of the tang. I like a tangier dressing but not everyone does but it's easy to adjust and change!