First things first: This is similar in concept to the Million Dollar Salad, but I think this one is considerably better. My neighbors certainly thought so.
A caveat before we get started: The recipe called for a tablespoon of chopped green onions, but I’d already harvested all my onions several weeks prior, and there was no way in hell I was going to buy a whole bunch of green onions from the store just so I could use a tablespoon in the salad. So, I just added some regular onion to the dressing.
Here’s what you’ll need:
1 Cup Tiny Shell Macaroni
2 Cups Lettuce, shredded
Salt and Pepper, to taste
2 Hard Boiled Eggs, sliced
1 Cup Cooked Ham, julienne
1 Cup Frozen Peas, thawed
½ Cup Swiss Cheese, shredded
½ Cup Mayonnaise
¼ Cup Sour Cream
1 Tbsp. Green Onion, chopped
1 tsp. Mustard
Dash Hot Sauce
2 Tbsp. Fresh Parsley, snipped
Cook macaroni, drain, rinse and cool.
Place shredded lettuce in the bottom of a two-quart dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top with macaroni. Sprinkle egg slices with salt and layer atop the macaroni.
Add ham, peas and cheese.
Combine remaining ingredients in a separate bowl and spread over salad, sealing to the edge of the dish.
Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours or overnight. Sprinkle with paprika and snipped parsley. Toss before serving.
This is a good summer salad and will feed 4 to 5 people easily.
The worst side of me is tempted to put this in a blender and see if anyone will drink it as a smoothie.
My first thought.
You didn’t think it tried to do too many things at once? Although I suppose not, if I were confronted with a decent salad bar with many options I’d probably put together something similar.
You should see me at a salad bar. I’m out of control.
Are salad bars back? They all closed during Covid, obviously, and there was suspicion that no one would ever utilize one again. But human memory is notoriously short, and Americans like the term, “All you can eat.”
Honestly I haven’t been to a restaurant that uses one in ages. They’re almost exclusively chains and Mrs. Butcher and I are fortunate enough to live in an area with enough good local restaurants to have been able to completely avoid the chains.
I, not to sound like a total foodie asshole, because I’m not, have not seen a salad bar in probably 35 years, except for the occasional excursion to a churrascaria, which are all-you-can-eat Brazilian “steak houses” where all kinds of meat is wheeled to your table and carved and served tableside. They always had salad bars, but they were lame and not really the point.
Never seen something like this, but definitely want to try it.
Oh the memories.
This is basically the format of every Midwestern “salad” from the 60s-90s before you know we started actually having fresh salads sometimes.
They’re super interesting salads to me because like with this one – your fresh ingredients are basically iceberg lettuce and green onions. Everything else can be frozen or bought way in advance. You know, because you live in northern Missouri and the nearest grocery store is a 45 minute drive and you can’t do that before the church potluck this weekend.
And they’re all variations of this – layer your stuff in there, always have a layer that’s basically mayo or miracle whip, always have some frozen stuff in there, always have shredded cheese.
Grandma had one that had fresh cauliflower, iceberg lettuce, and grapes in it. Plus mayo and shredded cheddar. Somehow it was palatable and I don’t understand the sorcery involved.
Very mid-modern!