Dinner Healthy Recipes Savory

Laid Back Summer Salad with roasted tomatoes and bacon

June 13, 2017 * by joythebaker * 12 Comments

This salad lives in that sweet spot between kitchen laziness and sincere artistic expression.  Consider summer salads your opportunity to play around on a plate with vegetables et al..  It’s food art, and really… the more croutons the better.  

This salad is a play on a layered cob.  Romaine lettuce leaves are washed well and left whole- saving on chopping and making this layered salad actually part taco.  Ya feel me?  

Here’s how:

•  Grab yourself a platter. 

     You’ll need: romaine leaves, crisp cooked bacon chopped well, roasted cherry tomatoes, a hard-boiled egg or two that’s been sliced, an avocado sliced up, ranch dressing, lots of well-crumbled croutons, sea salt and black pepper.  

•  Trim the romaine leaves from their bases.  Rinse in cool water and pat dry with a paper towel.  This is basically the most annoying part and you’re getting it over with. Pat on the ol’ back for you! 

•  Set the romaine leaves on the platter in just about a single layer.  Cozy them up close but be sure that all of the leaves will get a good sprinkling of toppings.

•  Speaking of toppings, let’s start with crisp and crumbled bacon. Sprinkle, go for it. 

•  Next up, roasted cherry tomatoes.  I sliced cherry tomatoes in half, drizzled them with olive oil, salt and pepper and let them rest in a 375 degrees F oven until they were bubbling, browned, and soft – about 20 minutes.  Boom. Perfect. 

•  Slice a hard-boiled egg and sprinkle the whites and yolks across the leaves.  

•  Avocado slices are a very good idea. If you’re taking this salad out on the town (you know, to a party or some such) I like to drizzle the avocado with lemon or lime so they don’t brown. 

•  Last, add ranch dressing and croutons.  The dressing could be homemade or store-bought. There’s no judgement here.   Same goes for crouton, pick up a bag at the store or make your own.  If store-bought (that’s what’s pictured above) be sure to crush them extra well before adding them to the top of a salad giving them a little variation in crumb and texture.   Add salt and pepper- go. 

There we are!  It’s simple.  Add cubed chicken or canned tuna if you’d like.  Blue cheese is also a bold and admirable choice.  Make it your own, with creativity and very little stress.

See also: How To Make The Best BLT Sandwich. 

I’m back to the kitchen experimenting with different bagel recipes.  Different art. Much moire boiling water and oven work.

More soon!

xo Joy