Jubilee’s Wilted Mixed Greens with Bacon

Prep: 20 mins

Cook: 10 mins

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 8 Servings

The dish we’ve come to know as warm spinach salad — greens tossed with a hot bacon dressing — wasn’t really a salad at all, to hear the black cookbook authors tell it through the years. Survey the vegetables section of soul food and early twentieth-century black cookbooks and look for this uber-popular combination with titles like “wilted” or “killer” lettuce or spinach — or you might miss it.

Ingredients

2 pounds mixed tender greens (spinach, arugula, chard, baby kale, watercress)
4 radishes, thinly sliced
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
1 cup grape tomatoes, cut into halves
8 slices bacon
2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese (optional)

Instructions

In a large salad bowl, toss together the greens, radishes, onion, eggs, and tomatoes.
In a large skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat until crisp, about 7 minutes. Leaving the rendered bacon fat in the skillet, remove the bacon to drain on paper towels and crumble when cool enough to handle.
Heat the bacon fat left in the skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in the vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper. Swirl the pan over the heat for 1 to 2 minutes to concentrate the flavors and slightly thicken the dressing. Pour the hot dressing over the greens and toss quickly to coat. Sprinkle the greens with the crumbled bacon and blue cheese (if using).