From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...It's baaack! While I'm not sure it ever went away, there was a long stretch of time when no one would admit they still ate this classic American salad. I speak, of course, of wedge-shaped iceberg lettuce that's been cloaked in the folds of a creamy dressing. The salad first appeared in the 1920's, but the height of its popularity came during the 1950's and 1960's when it was a standard feature on dinner tables across the country. There are few dishes easier to make and I'm fairly certain that its popularity coincided with the appearance of bottled salad dressings on supermarket shelves. While the preference these days seems to be for blue cheese, in those early years Thousand Island was the salad dressing of choice. I am a traditionalist and wouldn't dream of serving this salad with anything other than the ubiquitous salmon pink dressing. That, however, is where my homage ends. This dressing bares no resemblance to the one that was popular in the fifties. It carries with it a touch of the Orient and enough other ingredients to set your palate singing. I really think you like this. You'll need four wedges of iceberg lettuce to make this salad. Don't cut them until you are ready to dress the salad. Lettuce browns quickly when cut with a knife, so don't get too far ahead of yourself. This is the recipe I use to dress the salad.
Thousand Island Dressing...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, courtesy of Martha Stewart
Ingredients:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons ketchup
Optional: 1 teaspoon sambal oelek (hot chile paste)
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped sweet pickles, or sweet pickle relish
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped green olives with pimientos
Directions:
Whisk together mayonnaise, ketchup, chile paste (if using), pickles, and olives in a medium bowl. Dressing can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 1 week. Yield: 3/4 cup.
You might also enjoy these recipes:
Asian-Style Carrot Salad - One Perfect Bite
Corn Salad with Edamame and Tomatoes - One Perfect Bite
Bulgur Salad with Pomegranate Dressing - One Perfect Bite
Iceberg Wedge Salad with Buttermilk Dressing - Sippity Sup
Iceberg Wedge with Blue Cheese Dressing - Saveur
Blue Smoke's Iceberg Wedges with Roquefort Dressing - Serious Eats
This post is being linked to:
Pink Saturday, sponsored by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.
