The BEST Family Favorite Salad recipe ever! This easy salad is made with fresh romaine lettuce, two kinds of cheese, crispy bacon, sweet tomatoes, crunchy toasted almonds, and fresh cucumbers all tossed with a healthy lemon vinaigrette.
My mom would often say that she’s not a great salad maker, which is not true. Her strawberry feta poppyseed salad is hands down one of my favorite salads ever. I cannot beg you enough to make it. Oh and she’s famous for her Bowtie Chicken Pasta Salad too.
The Process
I began testing simple family salad recipes that even kids would like a few years ago, but no matter how hard I tried to find something simple it always ended up a bit more involved. Tell me you love to cook without telling me you love to cook…
So I’d circle back to Cooking Classy’s recipe for Salad de Maison, and forget about my own search for a bit. With time I realized that her recipe really is just the best for a simple, healthy, quick and easy salad recipe.
Cheese in salad is a big win for me, but which cheese is best? I tried all the different varieties; cheddar completely overpowered the salad, swiss hit all the wrong notes, havarti was soft and didn’t fall through the salad like I wanted.
I finally settled on two cheeses that I think transform this salad: Manchego and Parmesan cheese. Listen, manchego can be bought old or young, you will need to decide if you like the more mild or more pungent. I prefer the younger manchego to be honest, but both are deliciously mild. The parmesan adds that salty, nutty note your salad needs to pump up the flavor.
What Do I Need to Make Salad de Maison?
We’ve talked about a lot of the ingredients needed for this simple green salad recipe, but here is a complete list so you know what you need:
- Slivered Almonds
- Bacon
- Romaine Hearts
- Roma Tomatoes or Cherry Tomatoes
- English Cucumber
- Manchego Cheese
Lemon Dressing
- Light Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
- Fresh Lemon Juice
- Dijon Mustard
- Honey
- Salt
- Black Pepper
I love the BLT flavor that all the ingredients have when they’re combined! The measurements and details for each ingredient can be found in the recipe at the end of the post.
How to Make The Best Salad [Salad de Maison]
Before you get started with this salad, make sure you have cooked the bacon and toasted the almonds. It seems a little silly to include the steps for making a salad, but just in case you need it…
- Combine all the ingredients for the salad i