This is our favorite classic, simple, and easy house salad! Loaded with bacon, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, sunflower seeds, croutons, & ranch!
This recipe is inspired by a salad my family used to make growing up. By “make,” I mean we used to get this salad combination from the grocery store salad bar multiple times a week. It was our hyper-fixation for quite a while. Eventually it became known as our “house salad.” Because it goes with everything.
Traditionally house salads have romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, cheddar cheese, and croutons. We use all of those ingredients… but we also add shredded carrots, bacon bits, and sunflower seeds. Mainly for texture and extra flavor.
For the house salad dressing, we do a buttermilk ranch. It’s so good I could drink it.
You can add or leave out any ingredients to make it your own.
We love a ranch dressing with this salad. But you could also do a classic balsamic vinaigrette.
You could add pickled onions, red onions, bell peppers, or maybe some banana peppers.
Crispy onions or crispy bell peppers would add great flavor and texture.
For gluten free croutons, I like to crush up these crostinis. They make way better croutons than actual gluten free croutons.
Literally anything. But more specifically…
Best Steak Marinade + Lemon Parmesan Asparagus
Orange Cajun Salmon + Coconut Rice
Baked Blackened Salmon + Honey Roasted Carrots