BLT Salad With Avocado Ranch Dressing

This BLT salad features all the things you love about a classic BLT including crispy bacon bits, fresh romaine lettuce, juicy tomatoes, and even a creamy avocado ranch dressing drizzled on top.

Sometimes you’ve just gotta salad-ify a beloved classic and that’s exactly what we’re doing to BLTs today!

Yep, we’re taking all the ingredients from the classic sandwich and putting into beautiful loaded salad bowls with a creamy, dreamy avocado ranch drizzled on top.

Honestly, in a twist no one saw coming, we may love this salad even more than actual BLTs. I blame the avocado ranch dressing.

This salad is such a breeze to throw together too! All the ingredients are so simple and you can even make the avocado ranch dressing well in advance for easy assembly later.

Honestly, please consider just living in one of these bowls, they’re that good.

This Salad features…

• Crisp romaine lettuce and red onion
• Soft mozzarella and juicy cherry tomatoes
• Crispy bacon bits and toasty croutons
• A creamy, flavorful avocado ranch dressing

Making the BLT Salad

(scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe)

Ingredients You Will Need

• Romaine lettuce
• Cherry tomatoes
• Red onion
• Bacon
• Fresh mozzarella
• Croutons
• Avocado
• Greek yogurt
• Mayonnaise
• Basil
• Garlic
• Lime juice
• 2% milk

Meal Prep Instructions

You can prep several components of this salad ahead of time using these instructions!

• Chop lettuce, tomatoes, mozzarella, and red onion – store these ingredients in refrigerator up to 3 days.
• Make avocado dressing – this stores well in refrigerator up to 3 days.
• Assembly – once ready to assemble, cook the bacon until crispy then combine with the rest of the ingredients and dressing in a large bowl.

Tips for Perfect BLT Salad

1. Use ripe avocado in dressing – ripe avocado will break down into a creamy texture.
2. Rinse red onion – place the chopped red onion in a strainer and rinse several times with cold water to remove the extra bite red onions typically have.
3. Cook bacon just before assembling salad – this salad is best served while the bacon is fresh and crispy.
4. Blot grease from bacon – once the bacon bits are cooked, use paper towels to gently blot out the excess grease.
5. Serve salad immediately once dressed – this will keep all the ingredients fresh and crisp.

Recipe Variations

Try these ideas for a different twist on this salad.

• Use a bottled dressing – try using regular ranch, balsamic, Italian, or thousand island dressing in place of the homemade.
• Add fresh avocado – slice up fresh avocado and add to salad with other ingredients.
• Try a different cheese – try shredded sharp cheddar, feta cheese, or goat cheese.
• Add another meat – cooked chicken or thinly sliced cooked steak would be great additional meats to add to salad.

Once you try the salad version of a BLT I think you’ll agree that it more than holds its own against the classic sandwich! This is our go-to lunch salad for very good reason.

Get ready to fall absolutely in love with a salad.

Save this recipe using the ‘save to recipe box’ button below. If you make it, please let us know! Leave a comment + star rating below, or take a photo and tag it on Instagram with #wholeandheavenlyoven.

More keeper salads to try next!

• Hot Honey Peach Feta Salad
• Avocado Crispy Chickpea Caesar Salad
• Peach Caprese Pasta Salad

This post was updated with new recipe tips and photos on 6/27/24.