Aunt Betty’s Comfort Kitchen · Salads

Seven Layer Salad

Name: Seven Layer Salad
Total time: 24 h
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 300 g crisp lettuce; 75 g green bell pepper; 1 can sliced water chestnuts; 100 g sweet onion; 454 g frozen peas; 100 g celery; 40 g bacon; 220 g mayonnaise; 180 g sour cream; 25 g sugar; ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce; pinch salt; ¼ tsp black pepper; 225 g grated cheddar

The make-ahead party salad — crisp lettuce, sweet peas, and crunchy vegetables under a sealed cap of sour-cream-and-mayo dressing and grated cheese. Built the night before, it stays crisp and gets better.

4–24 hr total (mostly chilling) 20 min assemble 4 hr+ chill

Effort ●●○○ Time ●●●○ Some Doing

Servingsamounts scale to match

Units

Ingredients

Build it ahead and don't toss it. The sealed mayo-and-sour-cream top is what keeps the lettuce crisp overnight — spread it all the way to the edges of the bowl like frosting, refrigerate 4–24 hours, and toss only at the table. Dry the lettuce and peas well first; water is the enemy of a salad that has to sit.

Easier, if you like

Bagged chopped romaine or a coleslaw mix skips washing and drying a head of lettuce — just make sure it's dry.
Refrigerated real bacon bits and pre-shredded cheese cut the prep to just slicing the vegetables.

Method

Cook's notes

The layers are the recipe: lettuce on the bottom shields everything from the dressing, the tender vegetables go in the middle, and the sealed dressing and cheese cap the top. Don't stir until serving.

Seal the dressing to the edge of the bowl like frosting — that airtight cap is what keeps the lettuce crisp for up to a day.

Thaw the peas and pat them (and the lettuce) dry. Excess water thins the dressing and wilts the salad.

A clear glass bowl shows the layers off — this is a salad people eat with their eyes first.

Make it vegetarian (and keep it gluten-free)

Vegetarian: skip the bacon and use a vegetarian Worcestershire (or a few drops of soy sauce) — regular Worcestershire contains anchovies.

Gluten-free: use a gluten-free Worcestershire (Lea & Perrins in the US is gluten-free) and real bacon rather than imitation bacon bits, which can contain wheat. Everything else is naturally gluten-free.