BLT Salad

I admit that salads are not always the most "manly" of foods.  My husband is a really good salad eater (as long as there is ranch dressing involved) but my son isn't always as eager to fill his dinner plate with a salad.  The question that I had to ask myself was, "Is there a manly salad out there that would entice my finicky teenager to eat more vegetables?"  I found a recipe for a BLT salad on the Williams Sonoma website and decided this manly salad was worth a try.  I was really putting the theory that "bacon makes everything better" to the test here.  (Not to mention the fact that we had BLT's for lunch over the weekend and there were just a few strips of leftover bacon.) 

BLT Salad

Ingredients:

• 8 bacon slices, cut into bite-size pieces 
• 1 baguette, cut into bite-size cubes 
• 2 Tbs. olive oil   
• 1/2 cup sour cream   
• 2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice  
• 2 Tbs. grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese   
• 1 tsp. salt   
• 1 garlic clove, chopped 
• 1 head romaine lettuce, chopped 
• 1 pint mixed red and yellow cherry tomatoes, halved 

Directions:

Preheat an oven to 400°F. Spread out the bacon pieces on a rimmed baking sheet.  Luckily for me, this step was already done because I was using bacon that we leftover from our BLT's. 

Spread out the baguette cubes on a second rimmed baking sheet.  I tried to make a salad with bacon a little bit healthier by using a multigrain baguette. 

 Drizzle the olive oil over the baguette cubes. Using clean hands, toss the cubes to coat them evenly.

Put both baking sheets in the oven. Bake the baguette cubes until golden brown, about 10 minutes. If you don't have leftover bacon, bake the bacon pieces until crisp, about 15 minutes.  When the baguette cubes are ready, remove them from the oven and let them cool. Then, when the bacon pieces are ready, remove them as well and transfer to paper towels to drain and cool.  Chop.

To make the dressing, in a blender, combine the sour cream, lemon juice, cheese, salt and garlic. Blend until smooth. In a large salad bowl, combine the lettuce, tomatoes, bacon and baguette croutons.

Drizzle with the dressing, toss to mix and serve immediately. Serves 4.

The manly BLT salad was a big hit.  The boys ate it up.  There was no public admittance that it was a "good" salad from my son but when dinner was over, his salad bowl was empty.  Yea - score a small victory for mom. 

Ciao!


BLT Salad

Ingredients:

• 8 bacon slices, cut into bite-size pieces 
• 1 baguette, cut into bite-size cubes 
• 2 Tbs. olive oil   
• 1/2 cup sour cream   
• 2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice  
• 2 Tbs. grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese   
• 1 tsp. salt   
• 1 garlic clove, chopped 
• 1 head romaine lettuce, chopped 
• 1 pint mixed red and yellow cherry tomatoes, halved 

Directions:

Preheat an oven to 400°F.

Spread out the bacon pieces on a rimmed baking sheet. Spread out the baguette cubes on a second rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle the olive oil over the baguette cubes. Using clean hands, toss the cubes to coat them evenly.

Put both baking sheets in the oven. Bake the baguette cubes until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Bake the bacon pieces until crisp, about 15 minutes.

When the baguette cubes are ready, remove them from the oven and let them cool. Then, when the bacon pieces are ready, remove them as well and transfer to paper towels to drain and cool.

To make the dressing, in a blender, combine the sour cream, lemon juice, cheese, salt and garlic. Blend until smooth.

In a large salad bowl, combine the lettuce, tomatoes, bacon and baguette croutons. Drizzle with the dressing, toss to mix and serve immediately. Serves 4.