This is a strange time of year for me. The calendar says fall, but it’s still 90 degrees here in Florida. So while I am looking forward to more soups and stews and roasts and the fall vegetable season, we still have beautiful tomatoes. It was so humid here today that I decided that salad for dinner was the way to go and this one’s a doozy. Think bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich in a bowl with a spicy dressing drizzled over it. Yum.
I scoured the internet for a sriracha mayo, but nothing was exactly what I was looking for. They seemed to have more of an Asian feel using soy sauce and rice wine vinegar – I was looking for a decidedly American taste, and it struck me that I was sort of trying to get a bloody mary taste… Here’s what I did:
For the salad:
- One pound of bacon cooked crispy
- 1 head of romaine lettuce
- 4 tomatoes
- 2 cucumbers
- 1/2 red onion sliced thin
For the dressing:
- 1 cup good mayonnaise
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/3 cup sriracha
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1/3 cup chopped sweet pickles, or sweet relish (this is one time I used the splenda sweetened pickles – I figure that’s better than HFCS – technically it’s still low carb – but if you’ve found a brand that uses real ingredients, please let me know)
Combine everything in a container with a lid. Whisk to combine completely.
Cover and refrigerate.
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Line two sheet pans with foil and lay out the bacon so that nothing overlaps.
Put into the oven and rotate the pans 180 degrees every 6 minutes until they’re done to your liking. (mine took 18)
Using tongs transfer to a plate lined with paper towel
This is no drama, crispy bacon without grease all over your kitchen. It’s the best.
Chop the lettuce and put in a bowl, slice the tomatoes into thin wedges and add to the salad
Peel the cucumber and slice. I was feeling a bit nostalgic and decided to slice the cucumber the way Grandma used to. She would peel them and then run a fork heavily down the cucumbers on all sides, scoring them fairly deep.
That way when you slice them, they look like little flowers.
add the thinly sliced onion and toss to combine.
I used bowls for this one. Added some salad to each bowl, drizzled very lightly with extra virgin olive oil – and then drizzled with the spicy dressing. Crumble the bacon on top. Salt and pepper to taste.
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Twitter: chefmex
says:
Now that’s salad is well worth a try, I been a chef for many years ,and I have never worked with sriracha,
and I am sure many of your readers have not heard of it. can you briefly explain the item ? I work as a dietary chef for a assistant living community this would go well there. sounds very good. good job.
Thanks
Chef Ernie
It’s just a spicy Asian chile sauce. Sometimes it’s called “rooster sauce” because there’s a rooster on the label. If you haven’t tried it I completely recommend you do! Thanks for the comment!