Classic 7 Layer Salad {Portion Fix/21 Day Fix}

If you have ever been to a “get-together” in the South, you have probably seen a Classic 7 Layer Salad! The fact that it can be made ahead is one of the reasons it is so popular. Likewise, it is so economical and easy that it even shows up on an average weekend to go with a platter full of grilled food. 

What are the ingredients for a Classic 7 Layer Salad?

• Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Hard-Boiled Eggs
• Peas
• Onions
• Cheddar Cheese
• Bacon
  
  

This is the spot where I laugh and say that most 7 layer salads are “7 layers and dressing”, or in other words…. 8 layers!

 

The dressing is a simple mayo, yogurt mix that is sweetened with a little sugar. So between layers 5 and 6, there is a layer of dressing!

What kind of bowl do you make this salad in?

If I am making it for my house  I use a small straight-sided salad bowl. I cut the recipe in half when it is just the 2 of us. 

If I am just going to an outdoor bbq type party I will use a clear plastic bowl. I picked this one up at the Dollar Tree Store and took my salad to a birthday party. I was able to just leave the bowl with leftovers there when I got ready to go! (They have some salad tongs you can pick up too!) 

But if I am making it to “show off” I always break out my large trifle bowl. It has traveled to many baby showers, wedding receptions, and family reunions.

Let’s do some prep work!

You are going to need cooked turkey bacon and boiled eggs for this recipe so go ahead and prep them your favorite way. 

I like to get all of my ingredients prepped and then just build the salad all at once. Right here I want to pass along a tip that an older friend of mine showed me years ago, make a center “spacer”. She used a tin can with both ends out to do it back then, but I used a medium-sized styrofoam cup with the end cut out. You want something about the same height as the rim of your bowl. 

I fill the “core” to the top with my lettuce and then fill the rest in the bowl. 

Keeping that core in place means that the rest of your ingredients will be forced out to the edge of your bowl. I like my tomatoes to be good and juicy because they will mix with the dressing and make a more moist dressing. Add a little salt and pepper to this layer. 

English peas are the next layer. When my boys were little and would have NOTHING to do with an English pea, I used corn instead. I use frozen peas or corn, thawed.

The next layer is the eggs! They give a really good color contrast in our layers. You can see we are nearing the top of the spacer.

A layer of pretty purple onions is our 5th layer.

Taking the spacer out and finishing this Classic 7 Layer Salad

Now is the time that we are going to work that spacer out of the middle of the bowl. I spin the cup/can in a circle a couple of times to free up the ingredients touching the outside of the cup. Slowly lift the cup a few inches at a time while pushing the lettuce inside of the cup down with your other fingers. If the center sinks down just a little you can add another handful of lettuce to the center but usually, it will be ok because of the next layers. 

You spread the dressing over the whole salad at this layer. I like to spread it all the way around the edge so it can be seen and then fill in the middle.

Again I don’t worry about the very center very much. I don’t want to lose my dressing down in the loose lettuce in the center. 

Layer 7 and layer 8 are the cheese and the bacon.

I wasn’t too worried about the middle of the salad because you are going to pile up the cheese and the bacon in the middle! It will be mounded up on the top. 

How do you serve this salad and what are the container counts?

Anytime I take this salad to a party/get-together, I go ahead and serve myself first. It takes away the awkwardness of trying to “dig in” to a pretty dish. I like to use long tongs to serve it because, in theory, you want to get all the way down to the bottom layer of the bowl.

This makes a big salad, 12- 1 cup servings. That is 1/2G, 1/2R, 1/4B, 1/2 O, 1/4Y in 21 Day Fix container counts. The 1 cup serving is big enough when I have a plate full of other food. But sometimes I will have a double serving and a simple protein, I just double the container counts then. 

Can you customize this salad?

Certainly! Don’t have a red onion, use a yellow, a white one, even some green ones. I already mentioned changing the peas for corn. My family preferred ranch dressing when I made it for them at home. 

If I was going to use ranch dressing now, I would make this ranch that counts as a Red container. Recipe HERE. 

Because the basic serving only has 1/2 an Orange container in it, I serve extra ranch dressing on the side. I add 1 Tablespoon and give it all a toss. Recipe HERE.