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I’ve been making, eating, and enjoying 7 Layer Salad for the past 40+ years. This classic Midwestern side dish is a staple at potlucks, barbecues, neighborhood block parties, and family reunions, and it’s just as tasty now as it was back then.
If you’re from Ohio, you probably want to toss the salad before serving. It sounds crazy to me, but that’s how they do it! And to the sub-section of the population that adds hard-boiled eggs to your salad, please carry on. That sounds like a fabulous addition.
With over 500 5-star reviews, you can trust that this version is the very best and the one that will take you on a trip down memory lane – right back to your own childhood where you loved a hearty bowl of 7 Layer Salad, too.
Table of Contents
7 Layer Salad Ingredients:
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes:
- Lettuce: Iceberg, crispy head lettuce, or Romaine.
- Red onion: I love the color of this one, but you can substitute white, yellow, or sweet onion if you prefer. Tame harsh raw onions by soaking in ice water for 10 minutes, then draining well.
- Celery: A few ribs for extra crunch.
- Peas: Run frozen peas under cold water until thawed and drain well.
- Mayonnaise: Plain, good quality mayo like Hellman’s or Best Foods is perfect.
- Sugar: A little sugar transforms your mayo into salad dressing, but you can leave it out if you want to.
- Cheddar cheese: Or change the cheese to the one you love like smoked provolone, blue cheese, or feta cheese.
- Bacon: You could layer in some turkey or ham instead of the bacon.
How to make Seven Layer Salad:
Before you begin, you should decide on what bowl to use for your layered salad. A clear glass bowl shows off all the hard work you put into chopping the vegetables. And a clear glass bowl with straight sides makes it easy to assemble.
- First layer: In the bottom of the bowl, spread the shredded lettuce
- Second layer: A thin layer of chopped red onion
- Third layer: Chopped celery
- Fourth layer: Peas
- Fifth layer: Spread the mayo over everything and sprinkle with a little sugar
- Sixth layer: Shredded cheddar cheese
- Seventh layer: Crispy chopped bacon
4. Cover the salad up with plastic wrap and chill for a at least a couple hours.
How to Make 7 Layer Salad Ahead of time:
This salad is a make-ahead marvel! The salad needs to chill for a couple of hours anyway, but you can safely make it a full day ahead if needed. The flavor gets better as it sits! The key to make Seven Layer Salad in advance is to ensure all of the layers are totally dry. Spin that lettuce in a salad spinner or blot with clean kitchen towels. Your peas should go in thawed, not frozen. Celery and onion aren’t water-logged anyway, so you’ll be good to go there. And the mayonnaise layer provides a nice moisture barrier for the cheese and bacon. I’m always surprised at how well the leftovers hold up here, too!
7 Layer Salad Recipe Tips & Variations:
- Hard Boiled Eggs: Not in my Seven layer salad! But many people say that’s how they make it.
- Miracle Whip: Substitute Miracle Whip for the mayo if you are a Miracle Whip fan. The only difference between them is that the salad dressing Miracle Whip already has added sugar, paprika, and garlic powder.
- Sour cream: Some cooks love mixing half mayo, half sour cream for a tangier dressing.
- Parmesan cheese: A few tablespoons of freshly grated Parmesan cheese taste great added to the mayo.
- Extra veggies: Change out your layers for different vegetables like bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, scallions
- More toppings: Not traditional, but avocado, olives, and crunchy fried onions are so good!
More delicious salads:
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Seven Layer Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 head lettuce shredded
- 1/2 cup red onion diced (see note 1)
- 2-3 celery ribs sliced (about 1 cup)
- 12 ounces frozen peas thawed (see note 2)
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar (see note 3)
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1/2 pound bacon fried and crumbled
Instructions
- Spread the lettuce evenly in the bottom of a glass bowl. Top with red onion, celery, and peas.
- Spread mayonnaise on top of celery and sprinkle with sugar. Top with cheddar cheese and bacon. Cover and chill.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Red onion: I love the color of this one, but you can substitute white, yellow, or sweet onion if you prefer. Tame harsh raw onions by soaking in ice water for 10 minutes, then draining well.
- Peas: Run frozen peas under cold water until thawed and drain well.
- Sugar: A little sugar transforms your mayo into salad dressing, but you can leave it out if you want to.
To me this is the original seven layer salad recipe. I have made this for a lot of years and it’s my favorite. I can eat it for a meal. For a short cut I buy bacon bits instead of cooking bacon. Just as good to me!
I love that! – Meggan
This is a perfect low carb, not quite keto, salad. The peas are a little high so if you use fewer peas and stevia etc instead of sugar. Love it! Though we skip the celery.
My mom made this forever and now my sisters and I make Delish and and filling. I use either lite mayo or olive oil mayo and have never used a whole cup. I use a 9×13 glass pan. Mix romaine with the celery fill the pan. Spread with mayo. Layer from there. No eggs. No sugar needed. No parmesan in mine. Baco bits work or turkey bacon. Don’t need half pound. Just enough to crumble all over top. Baby frozen pees about 3/4 C. I’ve used chopped green onion instead of red.
Been a l-o-n-g time since I had this and fell in love with the simplicity of the recipe, an added plus is it is actually refreshing to eat, especially during the Summer months. I did add the hard boiled eggs as one of my layers. This was so we’ll received that I am making it again this weekend. Thanks for the reminder of a dish that is part of my childhood memories!
Made this over the weekend. It was a huge hit! None left to take home!
Happy to revisit this salad again. I like this version better than the one I used to make. My family devours it and I just keep making more. Hard to believe that something as simple as mayo and sugar for the dressing can taste so delicious. No variations. I make it as written.
We always had hard boiled eggs in ours and we loved it that way. Now my husband requests that I use pepper jack cheese instead of cheddar. We didn’t count the mayo as a layer. We would sometimes make it 8 layers layers if we had green peppers on hand. My dad and I would add tomatoes to ours as we sat to eat.
I like it because you can add and delete to your hearts content and have as many layers as you want.
I love this salad and was just having a hankering for it. Except, my mom called it 24-hour salad because it’s even better after chilling and melding for awhile. “7-Layer” is the bean dip, not this. So you aren’t limited to 7 ingredients. And yes, it always had eggs! I think my mom’s layers were iceberg, spinach, celery, green onion, peas, bacon, eggs, cheese, and the mayo dressing. Yum.
Here are a few additions/deletions I’ve found helpful.
1. Change red onion to chopped red cabbage for the color & for those who don’t like onions.
2. Don’t add tomatoes they make the salad watery (just like putting tomato on a sandwich that sits overnight)
3. I add the bacon just before I serve the salad so it’s not cold after sitting in the refrigerator.
4. If onions are used don’t use the canned fried onions (they are not good cold, very greasy taste when cold.
5. Make sure the cheddar is sharp. If not the salad is bland.
6. I’ve added cooked baby portobello mushrooms too!
7. If you add nuts toast them first. Add them at the last minute as they taste better at warmer or at room temperature.
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When my kids were young I quit making it because they didn’t like it. Now that they’re adults, I was trying to remember all the layers and the order. For some reason I always put the peas on top of the mayo–I guess it’s not a big deal. And, although it was always called 7 Layer Salad, it had 8 layers because I added green peppers. Anyways, now that I have it settled in my mind again as to the ingredients, I will be making it for Christmas dinner! Thanks.
I had this once about 35 yrs ago and loved it! So now it is time for me to make it.
Thank you for such great ideas and how to’s. I have a tough time getting proteins in so I will add a hard boiled egg and replace the mayo with spices added to Greek yogurt.
You forgot the hard boiled eggs !!
PEG!!! I NEVER had hard-boiled eggs in 7 layer salad in my entire life. No one i know has ever done that. A look on the internet suggests I might be wrong…. which would be sad. I mean hard-boiled eggs do sound good? But isn’t that too many layers? Or are you not supposed to count the mayonnaise later. Please advise. LOL!