Seven Layer Salad

Seven Layer Salad – Original Recipe

My first encounter with this dish was at a family reunion. Many years later I recreated it for another family gathering based on my husband’s memory of it. His version was accurate and it had all of the original ingredients: iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, sweet peas, hard-boiled eggs, sharp cheddar cheese and bacon pieces. But, to be honest with you, I thought it was pretty disgusting and he did too when he saw someone walk by with a plate of it; a big glob of mayonnaise wobbled precariously next to a few pieces of lettuce. Maybe my proportions of mayonnaise to lettuce was off but if you do an image search you will see what I mean.

Here is a modern and healthy vegan version.  You can always veganize this recipe to more closely match your own taste memory and use a vegan substitute for each with tempeh bacon, Daiya cheese shreds, firm tofu squares and black salt for the eggs and Vegenaise or Annie’s Green Goddess Dressing but I wanted to skip those options and try a cleaner eating approach.

Seven Layer Salad – Modern and Vegan

The salad sorted by layer from top to bottom:

green onions

carrots (can be tossed with nutritional yeast)

potato salad (sweet potato, white potato, red onion diced, dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, sunflower oil, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper)

green peas

red onion slices

green bell pepper slices

tomato slices

baby spinach leaves

Hope you enjoy it!