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Herb Parmesan Crisps and Shallot Dressing Salad

PARMESAN CRISPS take an ordinary salad to extraordinary!  These are a cheesy, crispy alternative to croutons.  The simple salad with fresh greens and colorful tomatoes, the easy homemade vinaigrette, and crispy Parmesan crisps is the perfect Potluck Salad!

Course Salad, Side Dish
Cuisine American, Italian
Keyword parmesan crisps, salad, salad dressing
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 6 minutes
Total Time 16 minutes
Servings 8 people
Calories 138 kcal
Author Carrie Tyler

Ingredients

Salad

  • 12 Grape Tomatoes
  • 10 ounces Spring Mix or Mesclun Salad

Shallot Vinaigrette

  • 1 Shallot, large
  • 2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 2 Tablespoons White Wine Vinegar
  • 2 Tablespoons Dijon Mustard
  • 1 Tablespoons Honey
  • ¼ teaspoon Salt
  • Fresh Ground Pepper, to taste

Parmesan Crisps

  • 4-6 ounces Grated Parmesan Cheese
  • ½ teaspoon Dried Oregano

Instructions

Prep-Ahead Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

  2. Rinse and dry salad mix.  See notes if you are doing this in advance.

  3. Rinse and dry the grape tomatoes, then slice them in half and store in a sealable baggie.

Shallot Vinaigrette

  1. Finely dice 1 Tbls shallot

  2. In a small bowl, add the Dijon, Oil, Vinegar, Honey, Shallot, Salt, Pepper.  Whisk together with a fork or small whisk until completely blended together.  Taste on a piece of lettuce for seasoning and add salt or pepper as needed.

Herb Parmesan Crisps

  1. Line a large baking sheet with parchment.  If you don't have parchment paper, you can use Aluminum Foil.  Start by make small mounds with 1 Tbls grated parmesan cheese.

  2. Spread each cheese mound out into about a 2 inch flat circle. Each should be about 1 inch apart from the others.  Sprinkle dried Oregano over each Parmesan circle.  

  3. Bake in oven for 5-6 minutes until bubbling and starting to brown around the edges

  4. Remove from oven and let cool.  Once cooled you can remove the crisps from the pan and place on paper towel to soak up some of the excess oil.  These are fragile, so stack them gentle and the lightly wrap in paper towel and place in plastic storage container for transporting.

  5. When adding these to the salad, you can leave them whole for a more dramatic effect, assuming you have at least 1 per guest.  Or you can break them up and sprink them over top.

Bringing it together

  1. When you are ready to serve the salad, toss the Vinaigrette with the salad and tomatoes.  Rearrange the salad to make sure the beautiful tomatoes are on top.  OR serve the dressing on the side and let guests add their own dressing.  Add the Parmesan Crisps and Enjoy!

Recipe Notes

If you are washing the salad mix in advance, make sure that you dry the leaves as much as possible.  Then roll out 4-5 full sheets of paper towel and dampen it with water.  Lay the dried salad in the paper towel  and roll it up lightly so as not to crush/bruise the leaves.  Then put in a large plastic bag or store in the serving bowl you are using.