Laid Back Summer Salad with roasted tomatoes and bacon

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