For this Pittsburgh salad recipe, you’ll top your greens with crispy French fries
This one is for the folks, like me, who order a salad for lunch, and then start sneaking fries off their friends’ plates. Did you know you can just — sit down for this one — put fries on your salad?
It’s news to me, but the fine people of Pittsburgh apparently figured this out long ago. They already stuff fries into their sandwiches, so they apparently decided that a French-fry-topped salad was the next right thing to do.
With a pop of protein from meat and/or eggs, the Pittsburgh salad pretty much has all your food groups covered in one dish. This version of the salad, from The Kitchn, also includes a homemade ranch dressing that makes it tantalizingly all-American.
But first, the fries. Frozen ones from the store are perfectly acceptable; no laborious frying is required. Recipe writer Danny Palumbo recommends Ore-Ida Golden or Lamb Weston Hand-Cut fries.
Palumbo also advises assembling the cold elements of the salad before cooking the fries. Get to work while the oven preheats for maximum efficiency.
Chop a whole head of iceberg lettuce into bite-sized pieces and pop it in the fridge. Then assemble the rest of the cold ingredients on a separate plate, creating little piles as you go along: hard-boiled eggs, a Roma tomato, English cucumber, jarred pepperoncini and some (optional) red onion.
Obviously, this being a kitchen-sink kind of salad, you can mix and match whatever ingredients you wish — if hard-boiled eggs won’t cut it, throw in some cooked steak or chicken slices.
Refrigerate the plate of toppings and make the dressing. This recipe for ranch uses freshly chopped dill and grated garlic to punch up the flavor. Pop it in the fridge when it’s done so you can prepare the grand finale: the fries!
When they’re almost done cooking, assemble four plates (or bowls) of salad with the chilled lettuce and toppings. Salt the fries as soon as they come out of the oven, toss them on top of your salad bowls and drizzle with dressing.
It’s like you’re really there! In Pittsburgh!
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