BLT Salad with a little O

I rarely repost a recipe from another blog, but sometimes I really have to.  A couple of weeks ago, Lynn from Happier than a Pig in Mud posted the most delicious-looking tomato salad recipe.  I knew that I would have to give it a try.

Just that day, I got called into work during my vacation.  Since I had to drive to town, I stopped at our local produce stand and purchased the very first local tomatoes of the season.  We had been waiting impatiently for them.  All I could think about at work was that tomato salad, but I really wanted a bacon, lettuce and tomato salad also.  So, when I got home from work, I made a BLT salad and used the dressing from Lynn’s recipe.  I cannot begin to tell you how good this was.  There is nothing quite as good as fresh, local tomatoes.

I halved Lynn’s dressing recipe using rice vinegar instead of cider vinegar.  I needed to use only half of the dressing for a salad for one.  The dressing kept well, and I had another salad a day or two later.  Thanks, Lynn, for a great new dressing recipe.

About the “O”, I had some red onion that I needed to use up, and I like onion in my salad, so the addition of “O” it was.  Use freshly cooked bacon in this salad.  It makes a world of difference.

The ingredients listed are for a salad for one.  If it is being made for more people, increase accordingly.

B L T Salad with a Little O
2 slices bacon
1 1 /2 c. lettuce cut into chunks
1 medium fresh tomato
1/4 c. chopped red onion
some croutons to top salad

Lynn’s Dressing (This is half of her recipe and I only used half of this for the salad.)
1/4 c sour cream
1/2 T. sugar
1/2 T.  vinegar (your choice)
1/8 t. garlic powder
1/8 t. onion powder
1/8 t. dried dill weed
salt and pepper to taste

Cook bacon until very crisp.  Drain, cool and crumble into large pieces.  While bacon is cooking, stir together the sour cream, sugar, vinegar, garlic powder, onion powder, dill weed, salt and pepper.  Mix well and set aside.  Chop and measure lettuce and place in a large individual salad dish.  Slice and chop tomato and add to lettuce.  Add chopped onion and bacon.  Stir to blend.  Pour half of dressing over the salad and mix till salad ingredients are well coated.  Scatter some croutons over the top of the salad, eat and enjoy.  Serves 1.  Place remaining dressing in a small, covered container and refrigerate to enjoy with another salad in a day or so.

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Kale, Leek, Lettuce and Tomato Salad with Bacon Dressing

One of the reasons that I joined the Eating the Alphabet Challenge hosted by Brenda over at Meal Planning Magic was to force myself to try new veggies and fruits.  Since this month’s letters are K and L, I decided to combine kale and leeks with the ingredients of a B, L, T sandwich in a salad.

I am not sure that I am now on the kale bandwagon, but it was an interesting salad to eat.  I will be making the bacon dressing again to used with other salads.

I am listing the ingredients and amounts that I used for the salad.  As with most salads, of course, everything is adjustable.

Be sure to rinse the chopped leeks well to remove any dirt and grit.

Kale, Leek, Lettuce and Tomato Salad with Bacon Dressing
8 cups, chopped kale
4 c. chopped iceberg lettuce
1 medium leek, thinly sliced and centers chopped
20 grape tomatoes, quartered
20 pitted black olives, quartered
8 slices bacon
2 T. olive oil
1 T. vinegar
1/2 t. dry mustard
1/4 t. salt
1/2 T. sugar
1/4 t. pepper, coarse ground if possible
2 T.  bacon drippings
1/2 c. mayonnaise

Remove spines from kale leaves and roughly chop.  Place in a large bowl and add the iceberg lettuce, leeks, tomatoes and black olives.  Toss to blend.  Fry bacon slices until crisp.  Do this in more than one batch if necessary.  Pour drippings into a small bowl and reserve.  Combine olive oil, vinegar, dry mustard, salt, sugar and pepper and mix well.  Slowly stir in bacon drippings.  Stir in mayonnaise until well blended.  Pour over salad ingredients in a bowl and toss well.  Crumble bacon slices and mix into salad.  Serves 4 to 6.

You can join the Eating the Alphabet Challenge anytime.  All the details are here. 

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Stuffed Iceberg Lettuce Salad-Eating the Alphabet

I will not be posting a Saturday Sweet today as this is the day to post for this month's Eating the Alphabet Challenge hosted by Brenda at Meal Planning Magic.  You can, however, find a recipe for a Double Berry Giant Eclair in Thursday's post.

The letters for June are I and J, and they are, indeed, a challenge.  The only two vegetables I could think of were iceberg lettuce and jicama.

Although it is somewhat looked down upon now, when I was growing up in the late 40’s and 50’s, iceberg lettuce was the most common lettuce found at the grocery store so people ate a lot of it. Creative cooks dreamed up many ways to serve it.  After all, this was the era of peach and pear halves made into faces and bananas made into candles.

In my area of the country, a popular “ladies’ lunch” dish was Stuffed Iceberg Lettuce Salad.  This dish consisted of cream cheese and other ingredients that were combined and stuffed into a cored head of lettuce.  The whole thing was tightly wrapped, chilled for several hours or overnight, then sliced for serving.  Generally, the slice of lettuce was smeared with a mayonnaise-based red dressing.  Because the slice of lettuce was cut up and everything mixed together to eat it,  this was also sometimes called a Knife and Fork Salad.

In the spirit of reviving an old favorite, today I am sharing a recipe for Stuffed Iceberg Lettuce Salad.  I have included two dressing choices, one for vegetable salad and one for fruit salad.

When selecting a head of lettuce to stuff, look for one that is heavy for its size and that has the core centered as much as possible.

The stuffing mixture is very flexible so if I have an 8-oz. package of cream cheese on hand, I use half of it.  If I have to buy cream cheese, I sometimes just buy the 3-oz. package.  Either can be used.

Almost any ingredient that one wants can be mixed in with the cream cheese.  Vegetables such as grated carrot, minced onion, peppers, tomatoes, radishes, celery, cucumber are common.  For a fruit salad chopped fresh or canned fruit such as apples, cherries, peaches, pears, pineapple, mandarin oranges or strawberries can be used.  Usually nuts are added to this.  Chopped cooked chicken, ham, tuna, salmon or bacon can be added for a more main-dish salad.  Consider the recipe below just a basic guide.

Stuffed Iceberg Lettuce Salad
1 medium head Iceberg Lettuce
3-4 oz. cream cheese, softened (regular, low fat or fat-free)

2 T. shredded Cheddar
2 T. minced onion, regular or green
2 T. minced red pepper
2 T. chopped black olives
1/4 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. dill weed
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients except lettuce in a small bowl and mix until well blended.  Set aside.  Smack core of lettuce against the edge of a counter to dislodge it.  Twist and remove the core.  If cavity does not seem big enough to hold all the cream cheese mixture, reach in and remove additional lettuce with a clean hand.  Stuff the cream cheese mixture tightly into the lettuce cavity.  Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and chill several hours or overnight.  At serving time, remove from refrigerator.  Cut into thick slices with a very sharp knife.  Lay on serving plates and smear lettuce with a thick red dressing such as the ones below.  Makes about 4 servings.

Quick Red Dressing (for vegetable or main-dish salad.
1/2 c. mayonnaise
1/4 c. chili sauce or ketchup
2 T. pickle relish
1 t. lemon juice

Combine ingredients in a small bowl until well blended.  Chill to blend flavors.  Makes about 3/4 c.

Cranberry Dressing (for fruit salad)
1 c. jellied cranberry sauce
1 c. mayonnaise
2 T. lemon juice
1 c. whipped cream (opt.)

Beat cranberry sauce and mayonnaise with an electric mixer until well blended.  Stir in lemon juice.  Chill to blend flavors.  For a richer dressing, fold in whipped cream.  Makes 2 -3 c.

There is still time to join in the fun and help us finish up the rest of the alphabet.  You can find all the necessary details on Brenda's Eating the Alphabet page.

Click on the links below to see what other bloggers have dreamed up for the letters I and J.

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