Over the summer I’m planning on spending a lot of time on simple healthy salads and dishes because it’s super hot in DC and I don’t like to eat a lot of heavy crap while I’m sweating up a storm. But before Betsy and I left for our vacation, I was basically just working to clean out the fridge. I noticed that I had the basic workings of a breakfast dish, except it was 6PM, so I thought I would try to turn a breakfast dish into a salad.
Here ya go!
Healthy?
Ok. Is this really a salad? I don’t know. It’s sort of just a plate of breakfast food on a bed of spinach. To make it more “salady” I poured on a quick vinaigrette I whisked up that was just 2 parts olive oil to 1 part balsamic vinegar. Easy.
First thing first, a breakfast salad needs some bacon. I like to cook my bacon in the oven on a baking sheet sometimes because I find that it cooks the pieces more uniformly and you can cook a bunch at once.
Necessary.
And potatoes! I was only making two salads so I only sliced up a few new potatoes I had and let them fry in two tablespoons of oil. It was at this point that I began to realize that my salad was becoming sort of like a cobb salad (read: not healthy at all).
Crispy = good.
Ok. So here is actually everything I put in this salad:
The Breakfast Salad
For 2 full plates of salad- 4 strips of bacon
- 1 Cup sliced potatoes, fried
- 1 Tomato, sliced
- 1/2 Cup stale bread, toasted in the oven (croutons/my take on toast)
- A few handfuls of greens, I used spinach.
- Blue Cheese
- Vinaigrette
- Eggs (I liked two eggs, Betsy only wanted one)
Ok. So I started my salad in a pretty healthy fashion.
Healthy!
Then I added the potatoes, bacon, toast, blue cheese, and vinaigrette.
Getting less healthy.
The eggs. Now there are obviously a lot of ways to crack (cook) an egg. I cooked mine sunny side up which means I fried them for a few minutes but never flipped them so they are basically raw. You could also poach them like I did for this salad or fry them on both sides, or hard boil them. Poaching or hard boiling would be the healthiest way to do it.
Borderline salad.
Obviously, this was a bit heavy for a salad, but I must say that I thought it was pretty good and the flavors are time-tested!
Anybody else have any ideas for this kind of salad?
How about spinach, strawberries, goat cheese and a fruity balsamic vinaigrette?
How about a sliced or crumbled hard boiled egg and a little honey mustard? Actually, a hot bacon – honey mustard dressing (combo from one of my fav restaurants) would be my first choice, but it’s equivalent to pouring a couple of teaspoons of bacon grease over the salad which just sounds gross.
I would also substitute goat cheese for blue since I’m not a fan of the stinky stuff.
P.S. I like the potatoes on the side. Rachael Ray featured a similar salad minus the potatoes last month in her magazine. Yours looks better though. :)
super hot in DC? I swear I do not missing living there at all. the humidity would KILL me there.
I’m with you on eating yummy salads in the heat. love that bacon shot…ohhh
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM I love “salads” like this!! YUM!!! I usually try to make mine a lil healthier and omit the bacon & potatoes, but hey – why mess around, right?!
Well. Those all sound like pretty good ideas. Just landed back in the states and trying to get back in the swing of things. Thanks for all ideas everyone ;)
Going to bed now…
Oh man, this looks great!
Oh my goodness this looks amazing. Best salad ever.
instead of eggs I’d put lemon halves and squirt the amazing juice on the beautiful lettuce and have it be organic loveliness, thanks for sharing. Jason