Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing and Nuts
Zhooshing up the greens.
Ingredients
- Enough for 4 people, crunchy greens and salad staples - either by themselves or a mix - such as cos (romaine) lettuce, endive, arugula/rocket, snow peas, sugar snap peas, celery, shredded brussels sprouts. Soft greens don't work well.
- 4 bacon rashers (depending on where in the world you live this can be middle/shortcut or streaky, so the amount varies. You might have to judge it)
- ½ cup diced nuts and/or seeds. Hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, pine nuts, pepitas, sunflower work well.
- 1½ tsp brown sugar
- ¾ cup no oil French dressing If using store-bought, you should see vinegar or lemon (not oil) listed as one of the top two ingredients.
- any garnish you wish such as chopped herbs, spring onion (green onion/scallion)
- salt, pepper
- lemon juice (option)
Instructions
- In advance, toast the nuts/seeds for approx 3 minutes in a dry frypan/skillet or until lightly browned or you can smell them. Keep them moving to prevent burning.
- Arrange your greens on the serving platter.
- Dice the bacon and fry until crisp. To the bacon, add the sugar and the French dressing and bring to the boil for a minute.
- You can do a little taste taste at this point, making sure to cool the dressing in a spoon and not burn your tongue. If it's not tart enough for you, squeeze in a little lemon juice. Season as desired with salt and pepper.
- Drizzle the hot dressing over your greens. Garnish with the nuts/seeds and, if using, spring onions (green onion/scallion) or herbs.
- Serve while still dressing still warm.