Wedge salad with spicy dressing

Wedge and steak

Wedge salad is a steakhouse thing. I don’t often frequent them, because once you’ve learned to cook a decent steak, it is an infinitely better value to do so in your kitchen and save restaurants for foods you can’t, won’t or don’t like to cook at home.

Thus, a wedge salad and me were not acquainted until a visit to Miller & Carter steakhouse on travels across England, and recipes popping up in the New York Times Cooking newsletter. But since I got to know it, I’ve appreciated this iceberg quarter buried under creamy dressing.

What is a wedge salad?

It’s a house salad prepared by a chef who couldn’t be bothered to chop it. That’s a joke obviously, but the dish apparently goes back to the 1950s, when steakhouses would serve a plain lettuce wedge before a main course as a palate cleanser. In the US traditional restaurants still offer you a salad or soup as a pre-main, just in case you might go hungry having had just the appetiser, the entrée and the dessert.

But by the 1970s a plain modest wedge of lettuce morphed into a classic steakhouse side dish, with a myriad of toppings alongside the rich dressing.

Classic Vinaigrette, Bacon & Honey Mustard, Caesar & Garlic Croutons, Long Clawson Stilton & Blue Cheese, or Garlic Mayonnaise & Grana Padano are on offer at Miller & Carter, leading you to think the steak might actually be surplus to requirements.

But if you sensibly prepare the wedge at home using my recipe, you’ll find it’s the perfect steak or chicken accompaniment.

What lettuce to use for wedge salad?

A big round iceberg is the natural choice as you can easily cut it even into eighths, size allowing, and it will hold its shape on the plate.

But more delicate varieties, like cos or romaine might taste even nicer, and they are more loosely packed so the dressing will permeate the wedge better. Those lettuce heads will only cut into four though, usually, unless you want to serve a skinny sliver per person.

Gochujang dressing

Gochujang is Korean red chilli paste, more smoky than hot and more fruity than spicy. It is made from dried Korean red chilli peppers called taeyangcho, glutinous rice, fermented soy beans, aromatics, sweeteners and salt.

The heat level of gochujang varies depending on the brand or variety. It’s a thick paste, extremely easy to use in sauces, marinades, meat dishes and plant dishes, providing delicious smoky flavour and bags of umami.

It is added to cooked foods but it can just as well be used raw: its main ingredient, gochugaru chilli powder, is the flavour and colour in raw kimchi. And as it turns out, it makes a marvellous combination with Greek yoghurt producing a sauce, condiment or dressing to die for.

How to prepare the wedge salad

Whichever lettuce you go for, cut it lengthwise into four, six or eight wedges (even number of wedges is not obligatory though, if you want five, knock yourself out). You can trim the core but leave enough to hold the wedge together.

Season it generously with salt and pepper and arrange on a plate or in a bowl.

For the dressing, simply mix as much or as little gochujang as you wish into good Greek yoghurt and add honey to taste. It will be delicious as is but too thick to dress the salad so dilute it with water, until it is of spoonable consistency. Dress your wedges and it’s good to go.

You can use gochujang yoghurt as a condiment too, with salmon, prawns or as a dip, especially for gyoza dumplings. When it’s to be a condiment or dip, don’t add any water.

More Korean recipes

Gochujang chicken, spicy and sweet Korean stir fry with gochujang, fermented chilli paste based sauce. Gochujang is your next go-to store cupboard ingredient, and this stir fry will become a firm fixture in your menu.

Basic kimchi is made with Napa cabbage, called Chinese leaf in the UK. To make kimchi, you salt the cabbage, then add spice paste made from gochugaru, the Korean chili powder, fish and soy sauces and leave to ferment for up to a week.

Korean BBQ-style oven baked meatballs with sweet and salty glaze, super easy and mega tasty. With old fashioned Ritz crackers to bulk out the beef mix!

More lettuce based salad recipes

Crispy pork mince, kidney beans and romaine lettuce salad with mixed toasted seeds. Caramelised pork crumbs are the best thing since crispy bacon!

Bacon, lettuce and blue cheese salad, the perfect recipe for light lunch. It is almost a BLT though the tomato is completely optional. My best recipe for a lettuce and bacon salad with bacon dressing and blue cheese crumbled over the salad!

Sweetcorn and nduja salad made with fresh or frozen corn, served on a bed of lettuce and topped with homemade tortilla crisps – an easy and gorgeous lunch dish.