Iceberg wedge salad with vegan blue cheese dressingI ate lettuce right off the ground in Salinas, California. I hadn’t eaten iceberg lettuce in years, it was freshly picked, I was on a salad tour with Dole, and I was wearing a hairnet. It was delicious. So delicious that I was inspired to create a new recipe that would feature its crispy-fresh goodness.

Blogger in hairnet

Here I am, outstanding in my field, rockin’ the hairnet.

Growing up, every single salad was iceberg lettuce with a few anemic cucumber slices and some sad hothouse tomatoes smothered in Kraft ranch, Italian, or Catalina dressing. Once I met real salads, I gave iceberg the boot. I remembered it as tasteless, flavorless, and nearly worthless when it comes to nutrition.

Cored iceberg lettuce

You can’t get lettuce any fresher than this! And yes, that is what I ate.

This field lettuce was sweet, crunchy, and refreshing. It sparkled with crispness when I bit into it. It deserved to be center stage, along with a fabulous dressing. I hoped that I had the perfect foil: I’d been fermenting tofu slathered in miso in my refrigerator for two months, after learning about tofu misozuke from the brilliant bloggers at Rau Om. It was supposed to taste like blue cheese… so why not a vegan blue cheese dressing? Yes, it did indeed taste like a mild blue cheese dressing. Husband Tested and Approved (and he does not like salad dressing)! Click here to learn how to make tofu misozuke yourself.

Suitable for:
vegan, gluten-free, reduced-sugar diets

Not for:
low-sodium or migraine diets

Iceberg Wedge Salad with vegan "cheese" and coconut "bacon"

Iceberg wedge salad with vegan blue cheese dressing

My twist on this classic salad, made with tofu "cheese."
5 from 1 vote
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Course Lunch
Cuisine American
Servings 4 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 1 head iceberg lettuce
  • 3 ounces tofu tofu misozuke or countertop tofu cheese
  • 1/2 cup soy milk
  • 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice (fresh)
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 cup olive oil (extra virgin) canola, safflower, grapeseed oils
  • 1/2 cup bacon (coconut) optional

Instructions
 

  • Crumble half of the cheese into your serving container.
  • Put the soy milk, vinegar, and the salt in the blender and let stand (without blending) 5-10 minutes to curdle. Add all other ingredients and blend until smooth and creamy, adding the oil last in a slow stream.
  • Pour into your serving container and mix gently with the crumbled cheese.
  • Wash the iceberg lettuce and dry with a kitchen towel. Remove any discolored or limp leaves from the outside. Slice in half through the core, then in half again using your chef's knife. Remove the core from each of the four pieces with an angled cut.
  • Serve each wedge on a plate topped with a generous pour of dressing, sprinkled with the coconut bacon.

Notes

Per serving (without coconut bacon):
  • 297 calories
  • 28 g fat
  • 4 g saturated fat
  • 20 g monounsaturated fat
  • 3 g polyunsaturated fat
  • 0 g trans fat
  • 0 g cholesterol
  • 597 mg sodium (35 mg sodium with salt omitted)
  • 377 mg potassium
  • 9 g carbohydrate
  • 3 g fiber
  • 5 g sugars
  • 5 g protein
  • 8 Weight Watchers Points Plus
Click here to learn <a title="How to make tofu misozuke | Vegan cheese" how to make tofu misozuke, or you can simply make counter-top tofu cheese in two or three days, if you don't want to wait two months! If you eat dairy, you can make this with blue or feta cheese. For this dressing I used the nori-wrapped tofu misozuke, which tasted most like blue cheese. I imagine that three or four months of aging would make it taste even more like blue cheese.
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