Bacon can save a salad. There’s no single formulation for a salad, however we’ve all had ones that wanted a star ingredient. The one downfall to easily tossing in a handful of chopped bacon is that the darn stuff falls to the underside, and it’s exhausting to stab with a fork as a result of its crispy wiles. Cease shedding your bacon to the underside of the salad—attempt mixing it straight into the dressing as a substitute.
You could possibly mix bacon into many sauces (or soups) to subtly introduce meat, smoke, and salt, however I discover that salads actually profit from the blended bacon component. The crisp bacon shatters into numerous teeny-tiny meat particles, suspended and smothered within the liquid elements of the dressing. As soon as tossed with the primary salad parts, the oils and fat of the dressing cradle the bacon bits and coat every hunk and shred of vegetation. As an alternative of looking the underside for misplaced slivers, the bacon effortlessly adheres to the salad parts, delivering scrumptious smoke and salt with each chunk.
Making a dressing that boasts bacon is, fortunately, easy. Relying on how bacon-forward you need it, cook dinner two to 4 strips of bacon till very crispy. I bake my bacon as a result of it’s hands-off, I can cook dinner it low and gradual to permit even the fattiest elements to crisp up, and don’t wish to fuss with fats splatter on my range prime. You should use a wire rack to bake the bacon this fashion, or simply cowl a baking sheet with foil and lay the bacon straight on it. Attempt to get the strips as evenly crisped as attainable, however any fatty bits will nonetheless mix so it’s not the tip of the salad-world. Load the entire dressing elements together with the cooked bacon strips into a typical blender, or right into a cup for an immersion blender, and mix. After about 20 to 30 seconds, you’ll have a blended bacon salad dressing to drizzle upon no matter you please.
Including bacon to salad dressing on this method works greatest with looser dressings, like oil and vinegar, dijon French dressing, or a buttermilk dressing. That doesn’t imply you can’t add it to thick and creamy dressings, although. In that case, break up the bacon dry. You are able to do this in a meals processor if in case you have one that can mill it finely. My meals processor is hit and miss, so I’d bake the bacon additional crispy, chop it finely, then give it a smash with my mortar and pestle to get finer bits. Then merely stir it into your creamy dressing earlier than including it to your salad. Fortunately, a thick dressing will assist bacon items which can be extra hefty, so that you’re in good condition even when you need to finely chop by hand.
This recipe is for a stunning honey bacon dijon dressing that I exploit on almost all the things (with or with out the bacon). The added fats from the pork offers it a barely creamy consistency that, in the event you toss it within the fridge for ten minutes, takes on an ethereal, whipped texture.
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Honey Bacon Dijon Salad Dressing
Ingredients:
- 4 strips of thinly cut bacon, cooked crisp
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Put all of the ingredients into a blender, cover, and blend. After 20 seconds, check the consistency of the bacon bits, and taste. Adjust for salt, acid, or sweetness to taste. Blend again if you want the bacon bits to be finer.
