Spinach Salad — The Side Dish That Held Its Own Next to the Brats

Fourth of July week. Well, almost — the Fourth is next Wednesday, but Milwaukee starts celebrating early because any excuse to grill is a good excuse. I've been thinking about what it means to be a Polish-American in a city that was built by Polish-Americans. Bay View, where I live, was one of the biggest Polish neighborhoods in the country a hundred years ago. St. Josaphat Basilica — my church — was built by Polish immigrants in 1901 with their own hands and their own money, and it looks like a cathedral you'd find in Kraków. The Polish Center on Lincoln Avenue has been running since 1952. Usinger's sausage. Vince's Meat Market. Klement's. This city runs on kielbasa and stubbornness. But it's also changing. Bay View used to be all working-class Polish and Irish families. Now it's coffee shops and yoga studios and restaurants with seventeen-dollar salads. The Cape Cod houses are getting flipped into modern monstrosities. Old-timers are selling and moving to Cudahy or Oak Creek. I don't hate the change — some of the new restaurants are genuinely good — but I feel it. I feel the thing that Babcia was slipping away even before she died. Maybe that's why I cook Polish food. Not just because I love it, but because if I stop making pierogi and bigos and kapusta and cold beet soup, who will? My generation isn't going to the Polish Center on Thursdays. They're going to the new ramen place on KK. Which is fine — the ramen is good — but somebody has to keep the old recipes alive. Anyway. This week I made a Fourth of July brat situation that would make any Wisconsinite proud. Johnsonville brats — yes, Johnsonville, because for grilling brats on the Fourth you go with the classic, not the artisanal. Simmered in beer (a lager, nothing fancy) and sliced onions for thirty minutes, then finished on the grill until the casings snap. Served on a semmel roll with sauerkraut and brown mustard. I also made a red-white-and-blue potato salad — red potatoes, blue cheese crumbles, white onion — which sounds gimmicky but was actually fantastic. The blue cheese and the warm vinaigrette worked in a way I didn't expect. Dad came over. We grilled on the balcony. He drank Miller Lite. I drank Helen's Wheat. We watched fireworks over the lake from the roof of my building, sitting in folding chairs like two guys who have all the time in the world. We don't. Nobody does. But it felt like we did, and that's enough.

The brats were the star that night, but every star needs a supporting cast—and after I pulled the potato salad together on a whim, it reminded me how much a good salad can elevate a simple cookout spread. This spinach salad has become my reliable warm-weather side: fast enough to throw together while the brats are simmering in beer, substantial enough to hold up next to sausage and mustard, and dressed with a warm bacon vinaigrette that feels like it belongs at a table where Miller Lite and Helen’s Wheat are both welcome. It’s not a Polish recipe, it’s not a fancy recipe—it’s just the right recipe for a balcony grill night with your dad.

Spinach Salad

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 27 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 10 oz fresh baby spinach, washed and dried
• 4 strips thick-cut bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 3 large eggs, hard-boiled, peeled and sliced
• 8 oz cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

1. Cook the bacon. In a medium skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon pieces until crisp and the fat is rendered, about 8–10 minutes. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside on a paper-towel-lined plate. Reserve 3 tablespoons of the drippings in the pan.
2. Build the vinaigrette. Reduce heat to low. Whisk the red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, sugar, salt, and pepper directly into the warm drippings in the skillet. Stir until the sugar dissolves, about 30 seconds. Remove from heat.
3. Assemble the salad. Place the spinach and sliced mushrooms in a large serving bowl. Pour the warm vinaigrette over the top and toss immediately so the spinach just barely wilts at the edges.
4. Top and serve. Arrange the sliced hard-boiled eggs and red onion over the dressed spinach. Scatter the crispy bacon on top. Serve immediately while the vinaigrette is still warm.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 145 | Protein: 8g | Fat: 10g | Carbs: 5g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 310mg