What a bountiful summer it’s been! And my garden just keeps going and going!! My hubby calls it the “energizer bunny garden”! And he’s right!

So with all of these wonderful veggies, comes lots and lots of cool and refreshing salads! I make them “chef-style” with lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, lean deli meats such as roast beef and turkey, nice cheeses for extra protein (creamy havarti and sharp cheddar are our favorites!), plus paper-thin sliced red onion, fresh sliced mushrooms for me and chopped hard-boiled egg for the hubs!

These salads have been a welcome and royal treat!! It’s been such a fantastic way to beat the heat, too! Neither one of us, especially my (normally) veggie-hater hubby, have eaten so many salads in our lives! Ha!

And since I have made a believer of fresh vegetables out of him, (only took 11 years…but he’s getting there 😉 ), I’m back to having a blast again making homemade salad dressings to go on top!

Nothing worse than making a gorgeous salad and pouring high fructose corn syrup-laden, flavorless, store-bought salad dressing all over it.

It’s like drizzling vegetable oil over a cake for icing. Uhm…..no thanks.

Though my hubby could eat my French dressing every time and never tire of it, I get a little bored with the same thing over and over and enjoy playing with my food! 😉

With that said, it was time to come up with a new one! 😉

I definitely need to make extra room in my freezer…it’s about explode. So, to make more space, I pulled out some bacon that I had cooked and some grape tomatoes that I had roasted.

Yay. I now have 4″ more of space.

Ha! But it sounded like a great start to a new dressing! My humungous green onions, still standing like soldiers, out in my herb garden would also join in, along with a little bit of parmesan cheese!

I got tired of searching for that nub of parmesan in the freezer that I KNOW is in there hiding from me, and caved and finally just added a little of the “green can” stuff. But you can use either, I’m sure. Just add as much or little as you like making sure you grate it finely.

Add all of the ingredients except the oil into the trusty ol’ blender and whirl until smooth!

Then simply remove the center piece of the lid, and with the blender running, stream in the oil.

Voila! That’s all there is to it! 😀

 

 

One thing I’ll tell you about this dressing in advance, fair warning, it wouldn’t win any beauty contests. It’s definitely not the prettiest salad dressing to look at.

But!!

It sure did taste good!!!

Wowza, did it ever!!

Thick, rich and MUCH creamier than it looks, it went very nicely with our salads, and would be excellent even over a classic wedge-style salad due to it’s thickness!

I think it could also be a VERY good dressing for a pasta salad, too!

It has tons of wonderful flavor! But, I think that the thickness (which I loved!), and slight “lumpiness/graininess” from the bacon and parmesan cheese, is what made it look a bit … funky.

 

 

So if you’re not one to judge a book by it’s cover, and love a thick and creamy salad dressing loaded with great flavor, then this dressing is right up your alley!

What’s not to love about cheese, bacon, roasted tomatoes and fresh green onions, right? 😀

So give this not-so-pretty on the outside, but LOVELY on the inside salad dressing a chance! 😉 And enjoy those summer salads while fresh veggies are still at their peak! 😀

 

Yield: about 1 quart

Creamy Parmesan, Bacon, Roasted Tomato & Green Onion Salad Dressing

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Ingredients

• 1 cup cup regular heavy mayonnaise, I prefer Hellmann's
• 1/2 cup + 1 rounded Tbl. thick sour cream such as Daisy
• 1/4 of a small onion, cut into wedges (about a 1/2 of a cup)
• 2/3 cup well-packed oven-roasted grape tomatoes (seasoned with salt, pepper, EVOO and a little thyme)
• 3 slices crisp-cooked lean quality thick bacon, finely chopped (1/3 cup nicely packed or just shy of a 1/2 cup unpacked)
• 1/4 tsp. spicy brown mustard
• 1/4 tsp. garlic salt
• 1/4 tsp. coarse ground black pepper
• 1/16 tsp. sweet smoked paprika
• 2 Tbl. apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbl. sugar
• 1/2 Tbl. minced fresh parsley, or 1 tsp. dried
• 1/2 Tbl. fine ground (green can) parmesan cheese
• 2 Tbl. milk
• 2 - 3 Tbl. sliced green onion (I used 2, but it could stand to use a bit more if you like)
• 1/3 cup salad oil such as canola or vegetable oil

Instructions

Add all ingredients into a blender *except oil. Place on lid and blend until smooth.

Remove center piece of lid, and slowly drizzle in oil while blender is running.

Chill.

Dressing will be nice and thick. Great for wedge salads, regular salads, and stirred into pasta salads!