BLT Salad

Who doesn’t love a nice Bacon, Lettuce and grilled tomato sandwich.  So I figured who wouldn’t love it in salad form.  With charred bread croutons and fire roasted tomatoes, this was a salad for men and women alike.  Heck, the main ingredient is bacon.  Who could not love this salad.  After making it, I declare that all salads made by me have fire roasted tomatoes on them.  It was one of the most delicious salads I have ever eaten.

Bacon, Lettuce and Grilled Tomato Salad – (Adapted from Weber’s Charcoal Grilling)

• 1/2 pound bacon, cut into bite sized pieces
• 2 tbs minced shallots
• 1 1/2 tbs red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp dried
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, stemmed
• 1 large crusty sandwich roll
• 12 oz mixed salad greens or mixed lettuce

Dice up the bacon into bite size pieces.

Place a large skillet over medium heat and cook the bacon until crisp.

Remove the bacon from the pan, making sure to reserve the bacon grease.  Pour the grease into a measuring cup to determine the amount of oil you have remaining. You need a little more than 1/3 cup.  If you have less than that, add a little olive oil to top off the mixture.

In a medium bowl, mix the shallot, vinegar, thyme, salt and pepper.  Slowly add the bacon grease to the bowl while whisking.  This will make a nice bacon flavored dressing.

Add a little bit of the dressing to the tomatoes.  Grill the tomatoes over medium heat in a grill basket.  Cook until the skins begin to crack and char.  Roughly 4-5 minutes.

While the tomatoes are cooking, cut the roll in half.  Then brush the cut side of the roll with a little of the dressing.

Then grill the roll over direct medium heat until the bread begins to char and develop nice grill marks.

Remove the bread from the grill and cut into large croutons.

Combine the tomatoes and bread into the bowl of dressing.

Toss the mixture.  Arrange a bed of lettuce into bowls and top with the lettuce, bread and dressing mixture.  Spoon a little of the dressing over the top.

Serve and enjoy!

This was a fabulous salad.  It was full of flavor and the grilled tomatoes and bread added an extra level of flavor.