BLT Salad with Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Dressing — A BLT salad packed with an abundance of veggies for added texture and flavor, all topped with homemade ranch! Fast, fresh, healthy & satisfying!
Easy Recipe for BLT Salad
My family adores anything with bacon. Bacon makes everything better, right?
The salad is chock full of colors, textures, and a plethora of veggies.
As many textures, flavors, and veggies that I can pack into a salad, that happier I am.
My favorite are the big tomato slices. Almost daily for the past 10 years, I eat one tomato. You know what they say, a tomato a day keeps the doctor away. Something like that.
Having juicy tomatoes with the crunchy cucumber slices, crisp carrots, and the little bursts of flavor and color from the peas and corn scattered about, is my idea of a great salad.
But what really makes a salad is the dressing. No matter how good the greens and veggies are, the dressing is the make-it-or-break-it element. And this dressing is a definite make-it.
You can just use your favorite store-bought ranch dressing, but making your own takes about 1 minute.
And after trying homemade ranch, you’ll never need those powdered ranch dressing mix packets again. Or shall I say packets of sodium and garlic powder.
BLT Salad Ingredients
To make this easy recipe for BLT salad, you’ll need:
- Bacon
- Salad greens
- Tomatoes
- Cucumber
- Carrots
- Corn
- Peas
- Mayonnaise
- Sour cream
- Buttermilk
- Fresh parsley
- Lemon juice
- Olive oil
- Green onion or chives
- Garlic
How to Make BLT Salad with Ranch Dressing
Making a BLT salad from scratch is so easy! I love that the dressing can be prepared in advance and eaten throughout the week.
Here’s a look at how the salad is prepared:
- Cook the bacon: Cook according to manufacturer’s instructions. Dice small; set aside.
- Assemble the salad: In a large bowl, add the greens, top with tomato, cucumber, carrots, peas, corn, and sprinkle bacon pieces over the top; set aside.
- Make the dressing: Combine the mayo and sour cream with a splash of buttermilk, lemon juice, olive oil, green onions or chives, parsley, salt and pepper, and blend until smooth.
- Drizzle as much dressing as you’d like over the salad. Enjoy!
Can I Use Different Veggies?
Of course! You can customize your BLT salad however you see fit. However, I recommend keeping the salad greens, tomato, and bacon — otherwise you’d be missing one of the key components of a BLT.
Can I Make This Vegetarian?
Yes! That’s what I did. Simply use your favorite vegan bacon and cook according to package instructions.
Tips for the Best BLT Salad
Low-fat swaps: For the dressing, you can use lite/reduced fat versions of the mayo and sour cream (or try Greek yogurt). I did, and the dressing is still plenty creamy, thick, and luscious, with just the right amount of tang from buttermilk.
Adjust the flavors: Like all dressings, adjust the seasonings, salt, and flavor balance to your taste. If you think it needs a dash more lemon, buttermilk, oil, salt, or whatever it is, add it to taste.
Leftover dressing: The recipe makes just over 1 cup dressing and extra will keep easily for a week in the fridge. It’s great to have around to do double duty as a veggie dip, or I’m sure it would make a fabulous chicken marinade.
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BLT Chopped Salad with Homemade Creamy Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
Ingredients
Salad
- ½ cup cooked, diced bacon or faux bacon pieces (about 8 strips bacon, cooked to manufacturer’s instructions)
- about 3 to 4 cups salad greens
- 1 small/medium ripe tomato, sliced into thin rounds
- half of 1 cucumber, about 10 thinly sliced rounds
- ¼ cup thinly sliced carrots
- ¼ cup peas, I used frozen
- ¼ cup corn, I used frozen
Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
- ½ heaping cup mayonnaise, lite or reduced fat okay
- ½ heaping cup sour cream, (lite or reduced fat okay; plain Greek yogurt may be substituted
- ¼ cup buttermilk + extra if necessary to thin
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf, Italian parsley
- 1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 to 2 tablespoon minced fresh green onion, scallions, or chives ( I used 1 trimmed green onion in entirety)
- 1 small garlic clove, peeled, optional and to taste
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper, or to taste
Instructions
- Salad – Cook bacon according to manufacturer’s instructions. Dice small; set aside.
- In a large bowl, add the greens, top with tomato, cucumber, carrots, peas, corn, and sprinkle bacon pieces over the top; set aside.
- Buttermilk Ranch Dressing – To the canister of a food processor or blender (mini food processors work great here), add all ingredients and blend until smooth and creamy, about 30 seconds. Taste dressing and if necessary, adjust flavor balance by adding more lemon, oil, herbs, salt and pepper, or whatever dressing needs, to taste. I like my dressing thicker and didn’t use more than 1/4 cup buttermilk, but add more, to taste, to thin it out. Brands of mayo, sour cream, and buttermilk all vary in their thickness.
- Transfer dressing to a glass jar with lid, or airtight container with a lid.
- Drizzle over salad and toss to combine. Serve immediately. Extra dressing will keep for 7 to 10 days airtight in the fridge; shake well before next use.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Homemade dressing is the best – and yours looks incredibly good Averie. Love all the bright beautiful colors in your salad too!
What kind of fake bacon is that?! I’ve never seen any that look so realistic, and I’ve eaten a lot of veggie bacon!
Great colors and you hate bacon…smh :)
Usually, when I think of salad, I think of bland and unappealing green leaves which are put together to make me feel a little bit healthier. BUT your photos surely change my mind. I love your food decoration ideas! SO pretty…
Glad your mind has been changed!
This is my kind of salad. I’m not a huge bacon fan either, to be honest, but sometimes I enjoy the flavor it lends to certain dishes, and salad just happens to be one of them. A good BLT every once in a while is something I enjoy too. I definitely need to try this dressing recipe – it sounds amazing!
So fresh and vibrant!! A beautiful salad.
And it’s ok that you don’t like bacon. I am a bacon lover, but I don’t push it on people ;)
LOL – on the not pushing it on ppl :)
I am not big fan of bacon either, and even when I do eat it, it has to be cooked just right: it cannot be too hard/overcooked or too soft/undercooked. I actually prefer prosciutto if I have to use bacon. But you added so much freshness around that bacon – the salad looks so colorful and healthy! This is my ideal lunch that I would love to have everyday (with the exception of bacon in it :))!
OMG, I just can’t get into bacon either, even the ‘bacon less’ kind ;)
Well, any sort of pork for that matter just doesn’t jive with me. I do like the occasional, good quality Canadian Bacon and I love this salad. The dressing is gorgeous!
I love all those vibrant colors! Bacon or no bacon, that’s how you get excited about salad :)
Oh I’m definitely visiting you in SD and I’ll pay you to make this salad for me. Loving every last bit of this. Pinned!
LOL you are so sweet :) thanks for the pin! When you visit, we’ll have to do drinks not salads LOL
I LOVE rainbow salads! Like you said, the more colors (and texture) you can pack in, the better. I’ve even completely forgotten about adding croutons just because I was so distracted by finding one more colorful veggie to chop and add in. So happy you sacrificed your kitchen and cooked the faux bacon; it looks like the perfect finishing touch (well, for everyone else)! :)
Funny…I totally forgot croutons til you just said that! Whoops! But I honestly almost never use them. I’d rather get my crunch from veggies :)
Exactly — and then save those carbs for cookies! ;)
I hate bacon too! But this salad looks so good, love the vibrant colors and homemade dressing!
I love that factoid about you :)
Looks delish Averie! The not-bacon you have in the US looks WAY more realistic than what we have in the UK!
It’s incredibly realistic. To the point that I feel like it IS real!
Nope, not a bacon lover either. I usually like the smell but then the taste is a let down. And fake bacon is worse than the real stuff. Bacon aside though – this is a straight up Midwest salad!
I thought you liked bacon?! Where have I been for 5+ years! But you’re right, I do think that fake bacon is even worse than the real thing in terms of stinkbomb factor!
This looks amazing!! I’d love a huge plate for dinner tonight!!
You know, funny enough I am not vegetarian but I don’t like bacon!! People think I’m insane. I don’t eat a lot of pork or red meat (Like a few times a year at a family dinner maybe), but I would never eat a whole slice of bacon or eat BLT or whatever.. it’s just so chewy and fatty and blech. Thought I’d make you feel less alone ;) If I wasn’t allergic to dairy I’d be all over this salad sans bacon :)
You can make homemade buttermilk with say almond milk and some lemon juice. No, it’s not perfect BUT it’s dairy-free and an option and then after you blend it will all the herbs, I think you’d be just fine!