Who doesn’t love a wedge salad? It’s beautiful, healthy-ish and covered in bacon and a cheesy dressing so what’s not to love?

I stumbled across this idea while thinking of new ideas for salad dressings. I was a little tired of vinaigrettes and wanted to do a creamy dressing. Both Barry and Marshall love love love bleu cheese dressing but I didn’t have any on hand so I figured I’d play around with my pimento cheese and come up with a creamy dressing using it instead of bleu cheese. That led me on a path that ended with this wedge salad which I presented on The Sporting Chef this week.

The Sporting Chef began in 2013 with Scott Leyseth, a brilliant tastemaker and wild cooking expert who specializes in specialties and detests the whole “fry it and smother it with gravy” idea. He brought into our homes a show teaching us how to prepare anything with fins, fur and/or feathers in unique and delicious ways that didn’t include smothering it in a gravy or letting it sit in coke for 24 hours. The Sporting Chef is a fast-paced cooking show featuring multiple professional and home chefs teaching techniques to bring the best out of all foods. So whether you caught it, shot it or bought it this show will teach you how to make your food be the best it can be and you’ll be the star of the night.

I was invited to be a part of the most recent season and had such fun working up recipes, taping the episodes and being a part of Scott’s work family. I want to teach folks that cooking for their family and friends isn’t hard, doesn’t have to take all day and can be flexible to include items you have on hand (which is how this whole recipe began in the first place!). I’m passionate about bringing people together and uniting us all and I believe enjoying great food in a loving atmosphere over a shared table is one of the best ways to do just that. So pull up a chair every Monday at 8:30 est/7:30 cst to watch and learn.

Here’s my recipe for a southern wedge salad. It starts with my white cheddar pimento cheese which I presented on the second episode of the season. If you didn’t catch it there the recipe is in my cookbook. (Also you can use a pimento cheese you buy in the store but. . .)

The Southern Wedge

1 cup white cheddar pimento cheese

1 cup milk or buttermilk

1/2 cup mayonnaise (I always use JFG)

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (optional)

Head of iceberg or Bibb lettuce, quartered

bacon or sausage, cooked and crumbled

1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered

cornbread croutons (recipe to follow)

In a blender mix pimento cheese, milk, Mayo and Worcestershire sauce until smooth.

Assemble the salad on plates and drizzle dressing. Sprinkle croutons on top. Serve to your people!

Cornbread croutons:

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a cast iron skillet in a 425 degree oven. Use stale cornbread (I use 2-day old cornbread) and cut into bite-size squares. Place in skillet and coat with melted butter. Toast for 5-10 minutes until golden.

Let me know how you like this recipe! It’s fun for brunch, lunch, dinner or a starter for a dinner party. If you’re super fancy or have time on your hands you could assemble these in bite-size pieces on a skewer for a holiday get together but I neither have the time nor the flair for such frivolity. But it would be awesome!

Aliceson