This Spinach Salad with Creamy Dressing was the signature salad of the Walper Hotel in its hay day for a reason!
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What Makes This Recipe Special?
I am a firm believer that signature recipes of successful restaurants are a surefire hit with your diners. After all, they have stood the test of time. And in this case - it is dead simple to boot!
If you buy pre-washed baby spinach you can save yourself some prep time. Cooking the bacon is the longest part of the preparation and if you are organized enough you may make extra one day while making breakfast!
Ingredients & Substitutions
Spinach
- Spinach is recommended. You need a sturdy green since the dressing is fairly heavy. You might try kale as a substitute but I have not tried this.
Heavy Cream
- It is delicious with heavy cream (35%) but if you want to lighten it you can substitute sour cream and thin it slightly with lighter cream.
Sugar
- I recently substituted Monk Sugar with Erythritol for the regular white sugar to accommodate a Keto dieter. I only use half the amount of Monk Sugar and when I taste-tested the dressing I found it to be fine. If you do substitute another sweetener start with a small amount and test the taste until you are satisfied. Other sweeteners such as honey or maple syrup may be used but they will affect the taste (maybe in a good way!). Again, start with just a fraction of the quantity and adjust to suit your taste.
Bacon
- Because there are so few ingredients in the salad, the bacon has a huge impact on the taste of the salad so please don't leave it out! Substitute? Nothing really compares to bacon but you could try crisping and crumbling Prosciutto. I like this addition in other salads.
Variations
- The addition of toasted pecans, walnuts or almonds would be a nice variation for this salad.
- The dressing would also be great on a cucumber salad or Waldorf salad.
Can I Make This Ahead?
You could definitely make the bacon ahead and crumble it while it's hot. Just heat gently to take the chill off of it before adding it to the salad. You can also prepare the dressing a few days ahead. And you can prepare your spinach a day or so ahead. Just don't assemble the salad until ready to serve.
Did I mention this was easy?
What to Serve With It?
The recipe was developed by a member of the family who owns Broil King Barbeques. They publish it along with steak and other grilling recipes!
Storage
After the salad is dressed it won't keep well. You might get away with leftovers the next day but the salad will get soggy quickly.
You can store the ingredients prepped quite easily. The dressing, or any leftover dressing, will keep for a week in the fridge.
Cooked bacon can be stored for a few days at least. Prepped spinach will keep up to a week as well (as long as it is thoroughly dry). If you store the ingredients separately you can dress the amount of salad you want at any given time and have another salad ready to go in literally a minute or two the next day!
10% or lighter cream does not thicken enough with vinegar to be palatable. Substitute sour cream or 18% cream if you don't want to use 35%.
Using 35% cream in the dressing, a serving comes to approximately 6 net carbs (based on the nutrition calculator used here). This could fit into a low carb or Keto diet with some meal planning. Replacing the sugar with a sugar substitute will lower the carb count. See the recipe notes for substitution suggestions.
The Walper Hotel is a hotel in Kitchener, Ontario built in 1893 and still going strong! The Walper has hosted countless weddings, trade shows and functions and entertained celebrities such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Duke Ellington. The recipe was developed for The Walper Terrace Hotel and is now published as part of the Broil King history since it was a member of their family who developed the recipe for The Walper.
Walper Spinach Salad With Creamy Dressing
If you tried this, or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know it went in the 📝 comments below!
Save Print Pin FacebookIngredients
- 1 bunch fresh baby spinach about 8 cups See Notes
- ¼ lb bacon 100 grams
- ½ cup heavy cream (18% or 35%) 142mL
- 1 ½ tablespoon white vinegar 25 mL
- 1 teaspoon grated onion 15 mL
- pinch dry mustard
- 2 tablespoon sugar 45 mL (See Notes)
- ½ teaspoon sea salt 7 mL
- ¼ teaspoon pepper 3 mL
Instructions
- Wash spinach well in cold water. Spin dry and remove tough stems. Tear larger pieces of spinach if necessary.
- Fry bacon in a large skillet over medium high heat until crisp. Drain on a paper towel. Crumble or chop roughly when cool.
- Mix all dressing ingredients together in a jar and shake well.
- Toss spinach and bacon with dressing just before serving.
- Spinach keeps well refrigerated in plastic with some paper towel to absorb excess moisture for a week. Store bacon bits and dressing separately up to one week as well. Gently heat bacon just enough to take the chill off of it when ready to serve. Mix desired quantity just before serving.
Alex
I used to work at the Walper in the banquets department and I loved this salad!! So excited to find this recipe - thank you!
thewineloverskitchen
Happy you like it! Simple but good!