Turn a simple salad into a masterpiece with this easy Hot Bacon Dressing. Classically used on spinach salads, this dressing has flavor and texture that lends well to a variety of dishes.
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The Perfect Winter Salad Dressing
In the winter, I love using a hot salad dressing or hot toppings like roasted spaghetti squash or delicata squash. It takes a healthy cold dish and makes it a winter staple.
This Hot Bacon Dressing makes simple salads holiday-worthy. But to tell you the truth, I’ve been making this for myself and keeping it store in the fridge. The bacon fat will solidify when refrigerated, but I just take a scoop and heat it up and toss up some greens and protein with it for a quick, super satisfying work week lunch.
Use a high quality bacon for this recipe, one whose flavor you really enjoy, since that is what provides most of the flavor in this recipe. I like to look for options that are nitrate and nitrite free, along with being sugar free.
This hot bacon salad dressing is perfect for keto or low carb dieters. It can be made sugar free or with maple syrup — either way is delicious!
How to Make Hot Bacon Dressing
Step 1: Cook the bacon until it’s crisp, then remove it from the pan. It should leave behind about 1/4 cup of bacon grease. If it seems like too much, you can drain a little out of the pan. Take the bacon out of the pan and chop it up.
Step 2: Into the pan with the bacon grease, add the shallots, and fry them for about 5-7 minutes, until they are very soft.
Step 3: Into the pan with the fried shallots, add the avocado oil, sweetener, red wine vinegar, and the chopped bacon. Season the dressing lightly with salt and pepper. Salt might not be necessary depending on the bacon you use.
Step 4: Serve the dressing hot. Refrigerate leftovers, and then reheat until melted and warm to serve it. I keep the leftovers for up to a week refrigerated. If making this dressing for a holiday dinner, it’s fine to make it early and reheat it right before your meal.
How to Serve this Salad Dressing
Hot bacon dressings are classically used on spinach salads. This dressing turns a plate of spinach into something pretty incredible.
If you’d like, dress up your spinach salad by adding:
- Roasted red peppers
- Hard boiled eggs
- Chicken
- Roasted winter squash
- Broiled shrimp
- Roasted brussels sprouts
You can also use this Hot Bacon Dressing on these salad recipes:
- Keto Breakfast Salads, from Blissfully Low Carb
- Loaded Chicken Caesar Salad (instead of the Caesar dressing)
- Delicata Squash Spinach Salad
- Italian Green Salad
Hot Bacon Dressing
Ingredients
- 6 slices bacon nitrate and nitrite free
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil
- 1 shallot minced, or 1/2 cup minced shallot
- 2 tablespoons monk fruit sweetener sub maple syrup or honey
- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
- sea salt to taste, optional
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Add the bacon to a large skillet, and cook to preferred doneness. Remove the bacon from the pan, leaving the fat in the skillet. Chop the bacon and set aside.
- Into the bacon fat, add the minced shallots, and saute for about 5-7 minutes, until softened.
- Into the pan with the shallots, add the avocado oil, monk fruit sweetener, and red wine vinegar. Wait until the vinegar heats slightly, and then remove the pan from the heat. Add back in the chopped bacon and season with salt and pepper if necessary.
- Serve this dressing hot on salads. Store leftovers in the fridge for up to 7 days, and reheat prior to serving.
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