Wedge Salad with Creamy Shallot Dressing & Crispy Shallot Topping

veggie wedge salad

A traditional wedge salad is served with lots of bacon. Obviously, for me this isn't an option. But, I love everything else about a wedge, so for this post I've made a vegetarian friendly version. The star of my salad is arguably the crispy fried shallots, but the dressing is quite good too. If you haven't guessed, I'm focusing on shallots for this series of recipes.

With spring comes lots of different types of onions - green, chives, ramps, etc. Shallots are one of many, but they are the only ones that are purple! Of course, they don't uncover their beautiful light purple color until the skin is peeled away. This recipe calls not only for shallots, but also for a little red onion and chives. All other traditional wedge ingredients like iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, and blue cheese are included. Make this veggie wedge salad even if you aren't a vegetarian, it's quite tasty. Here's how...

Ingredients - Serves 4
Wedge Salad
1 Head Iceberg Lettuce, core & cut into quarters
1 C Cherry Tomatoes, halved
1/4 Small Red Onion, thinly sliced
4 oz. Crumbled Blue Cheese

Creamy Shallot Dressing
1 Shallot, finely chopped
1/2 C Plain Greek Yogurt
1/4 C Sour Cream
1/2 C Butter Milk
1 T Chives, chopped
1 T White Wine Vinegar
Kosher Salt
Black Pepper

Crispy Shallot Topping
Canola Oil, for frying
4 Shallots
2 T All-Purpose Flour
Smoked Salt (or Kosher)

Directions
Begin by heating a large skillet (suggest cast iron) filled halfway with oil to 350 degrees.

Make the dressing: Combine the shallot, yogurt, sour cream, butter milk, chives, and vinegar in a medium bowl. Whisk together and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Make the crispy shallots: Slice the shallots into thin rings. Separate the rings and put them in a bowl with the flour. Gently toss to coat. Shake off any excess flour and put half of the shallots into the preheated oil. Fry the shallots until they are golden brown, about 5 minutes. Don't over cook, they will become bitter. Remove the crispy shallots to a paper towel lined plate and sprinkle with the smoked salt. Repeat until all of the shallots have been fried.

Build the salad: Put one iceberg wedge on a plate cut-side up. Top with some of the dressing. Then, add the tomatoes, red onion, and blue cheese. Finally top with the crispy shallots and more black pepper. Serve with extra dressing. Enjoy!