Mmh salad. Let’s commemorate this salad as the last good, fresh-tasting, healthy ingredient-ful salad I will have eaten until my sister comes to take over my kitchen next week. Somebody is taking up too much of my time to spend 15 minutes on a salad, or more importantly 45 minutes in the produce market getting the ingredients. But I’m a lucky duck because my sister is coming to my rescue, my sister who loves salad like I do, whose husband hates salad almost as much as she loves it, my sister who is always happy to add a salad to a meal where everyone will rejoice over it.
But I’m getting ahead of myself because this post is about the last good salad I ate, not the next. What caught my eye on this one was the dressing because it was a far cry from your standard vinaigrette or cream-based dressing. Though I am generally not a fan of fresh tomatoes it sounded so delightfully summery and appropriate given the 75+ weather we’ve been having to highlight the unheated tomato flavors in the dressing. With the addition of the red wine vinaigrette I found the tomato-y flavor to be totally palatable and scraped my plate clean.
Of course it wasn’t just the tomatoes I was finding so palatable, but I’m thinking it doesn’t take much to sell people on the merits of bacon, avocado, and fresh mozzarella. Sheesh. Who wouldn’t eat those three things together and smack their lips?
Summer Salad
Taken from Kayotic Kitchen
4oz bacon
1 avocado
romaine lettuce
mozzarella
red onion
rocket (or other salad leaves)
Tomato Dressing:
3 Roma tomatoes
1 garlic clove
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
4 tbsp oil
pepper
salt
Directions:
I’ve got 3 gorgeous, juicy and bright red Roma tomatoes here. I’ve cut an x at the bottom of each tomato. This will make the skin slide right off. No more butchering those poor defenseless tomatoes, you hear me! Squeeze out most of the seeds. Don’t fret about a seed or two still being in there. Give the tomatoes a rough chop.
Transfer them to a blender, or be like me, and use your immersion blender. I use my immersion blender for almost everything. Add 4 tbsp oil, 1 coarsely chopped garlic clove, 2 tbsp red wine vinegar and a really good pinch of salt and pepper.
See where we’re going with this? Blend or blitz until you have a smooth, cheerful orange dressing chock-full of flavor. This tastes like summer to me. Check the seasoning, it might need an extra pinch of salt. This dressing is highly addictive and works beautifully with the avocado and bacon. I even dip my bread in it, but well, that’s just me.
I’ve cooked the bacon over low heat until it was golden brown and crispy. Drain them on a paper towel.
Finely slice the red onion.
I’m using 3 crispy baby romaine (little gem) leaves per person. Wash and dry them.
Just break a boll of mozzarella with your hands. Don’t cut it; that looks way too clean. You want it to look a little rustic, so just yank it in coarse pieces.
I’ve also picked a handful of rocket from my back yard. Wash and dry the salad leaves.
I’m going for 1/2 an avocado per person. I cut each half in two, so I end up with four parts.
Just start layering them anyway you like. Get creative. I always start with the romaine, toss the mozzarella, bacon and onion on top. Kinda squeeze the rocket leaves in between and end with the avocado pieces.
Drizzle the tomato dressing over the avocado, crack some black pepper on top and serve the rest in a separate bowl.
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(Cheering on the zipliners)
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