Name: Bigly Spinach Salad
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 8 oz baby spinach; 6 slices, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces thick-cut bacon; 8 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced; 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced; 3 large eggs; 1 small shallot, minced; 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar; 1 tbsp dijon mustard; 1 tsp maple syrup; to taste kosher salt; to taste black pepper, freshly ground; 1-2 tbsp, only if needed olive oil

Bigly Spinach Salad

Prep

10m

Cook

10m

Total

20m

Bigly says

Listen to me. Spinach salad. The HOT BACON spinach salad. The greatest warm salad in the entire history of warm salads — and there have been a LOT of warm salads, hundreds, thousands maybe — and ours, the one I'm about to give you, is the BEST one. It's not even close. It's a slaughter.

Now scientists — and I've talked to scientists, very smart people, the smartest, food chemists with PhDs from schools you've heard of and a few you haven't — they will tell you that when hot acidic dressing hits fresh raw spinach leaves, something CHEMICAL happens. The cell walls relax. The leaf goes from squeaky and stiff to silky and elastic in about five seconds. They call it 'controlled wilt.' I had a guy with a PhD explain this to me. Took him 90 minutes. Worth it. The brunch buffet version — the sad cold pile next to the powdered scrambled eggs, the lone slice of hardboiled egg that's been there since brunches BEGAN — that thing is an EMBARRASSMENT to the spinach industry. The spinach industry should sue. They have a case. What we're doing is the OPPOSITE of that. We render bacon. We make the hot vinaigrette in the rendered fat. We pour it directly over the fresh leaves. Magic. Chemistry. Science.

Mushrooms. Egg. Red onion. Bacon — the king of meats, the meat that built America, and I want to be very clear about this — does NOT need to be 'turkey bacon,' there is no such thing as turkey bacon, that is a deceptive marketing practice and the FTC should look into it. Real bacon. Real spinach. Hot dressing. Eight minutes. Other sites bury this recipe behind 18 popups and a newsletter signup before the ingredients. INSANE. We just give you the thing. Tremendous.

Ingredients

8 ozbaby spinach(fresh, dry, fluffy — not the slimy bag at the back of the produce shelf)
6 slices, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch piecesthick-cut bacon
8 ozcremini mushrooms, sliced
1/2 smallred onion, thinly sliced
3large eggs
1 smallshallot, minced
3 tbspapple cider vinegar
1 tbspdijon mustard
1 tspmaple syrup(real maple, again, no apologies)
to tastekosher salt
to tasteblack pepper, freshly ground
1-2 tbsp, only if neededolive oil

Steps

1
Hard-boil the eggs: place eggs in a saucepan, cover with cold water by 1 inch, bring to a boil, cover, remove from heat, and let stand 10 minutes. Transfer to ice water, cool, then peel and quarter. Set aside.
2
Place the spinach, mushrooms, and red onion in a large heat-proof bowl. Set near the stove.
3
Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until deeply crisp, 6-8 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate. Leave about 3 tablespoons of rendered fat in the skillet (add olive oil if you're short).
4
Reduce heat to medium-low. Add the minced shallot to the bacon fat and cook 1 minute, until softened and fragrant.
5
Whisk in the vinegar, mustard, maple syrup, a big pinch of salt, and several cracks of pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook 30 seconds, scraping up any browned bits.
6
Immediately pour the hot dressing over the spinach mixture. Toss quickly and thoroughly — the spinach should wilt slightly but still look bright and lively.
7
Top with the bacon and quartered eggs. Finish with another crack of pepper and serve immediately, while it's still warm.

One more thing

This is the salad that converts the spinach haters. The skeptics. The people who say 'I don't do salad.' They take one bite, the warm dressing hits, the bacon hits, the egg yolk smears across the leaves — and they're DONE. Converted. They come back for seconds, thirds, they ask for the recipe and you send them here. No tricks. No upsells. The salad does the work, the way salad was SUPPOSED to. Make it once, you'll make it forever. And there you have it.

★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★

Ask Bigly about Bigly Spinach Salad.

Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.

Bigly Spinach Salad

Ingredients

Steps

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