September 7, 2013

BLT Wedge Salad

Bacon, Easy!, Salad, Summer 3 Comments

It’s amazing how quickly the thrills of summer transform into those of fall. It’s not just about the temperature, either (in fact, that hasn’t particularly changed). The tree outside my apartment has begun dropping leaves to the ground, and with each trip to my car in the morning, those leaves announce the arrival of autumn with a delicate crunch beneath my feet.  The light deepens to gold a bit more each day, and the anticipation I’ve grown accustomed to feeling around this time each year is beginning to grow.

And yet a week ago, my heart was full with summer. And so was my pantry. I’d harvested the last batch of tomatoes from my garden, and after celebrating some of them with some BLT sandwiches, I wanted to try them in a different configuration: as a salad!

This salad is inspired by one that Brad and I usually split at one of our favorite restaurants, and it’s simple enough that I’m frankly stunned I’ve never attempted something like it at home.

It starts with iceberg lettuce.

Now I know that iceberg lettuce gets a lot of flak these days. With the popularity of arugala, mesclun, baby greens, micro greens, and more, the old head of watery lettuce is somewhat of a black sheep. And it’s true, it does have little to no nutritional content. But for it’s shape, there’s nothing better for making a wedge salad.

So there’s the wedge. Then it’s um, really really easy to finish the salad part.

Bacon, parmesan, tomato, green onion, and ranch dressing dress up this wedge of iceberg for a night on the town.

A variety of textures, flavors, and colors make this salad a lot of fun to serve, and even more fun to eat. The saltiness of the bacon plays nicely against the cool and creamy ranch, and the tomatoes work in tandem with the bacon just as well here as they do on a sandwich. Make sure you serve it on a big plate with a sharp knife though… it turns out there’s a lot of lettuce hidden in that wedge!

BLT Wedge Salad
Inspired by Brio Tuscan Grille

Makes two salads

1/2 pound bacon, cooked and chopped into small pieces
half a head of iceberg lettuce, cut into two wedges
1/2 c ranch dressing
1/3 c freshly grated parmesan cheese
one green onion, chopped
one small tomato, diced

Cook bacon and soak up any additional grease on a plate lined with paper towels. Chop bacon into small pieces and set aside. Remove the outer leaf of the half lettuce head, chop off the dense core, and chop into two wedges.

Place each wedge on a large plate with the peak of the ridge facing up. Drizzle half of the ranch dressing over each wedge. Sprinkle half of the bacon, parmesan, green onion, and tomato over each wedge.

Serve immediately. Make sure to grab a sharp knife to chop your salad into delicious bits!