This salad lives in that sweet spot between kitchen laziness and sincere artistic expression. Consider summer salads your opportunity to play around on a plate with vegetables. It’s food art, and really… the more croutons the better.
This salad is a play on a layered cob. Romaine lettuce leaves are washed well and left whole (saving on chopping) and making this layered salad actually part taco.
Here’s how:
Grab yourself a platter.
Ingredients:
- romaine leaves
- crisp cooked bacon chopped well
- roasted cherry tomatoes
- a hard-boiled egg or two that’s been sliced
- an avocado sliced up
- ranch dressing
- lots of well-crumbled croutons
- sea salt and black pepper
Instructions:
- Trim the romaine leaves from their bases. Rinse in cool water and pat dry with a paper towel. This is basically the most annoying part.
- Set the romaine leaves on the platter in just about a single layer. Line them up close but be sure that all of the leaves will get a good sprinkling of toppings.
- Start with crisp and crumbled bacon. Sprinkle, go for it.
- Roasted cherry tomatoes:
- Slice cherry tomatoes in half, drizzled them with olive oil, salt and pepper and let them rest in a 375 degrees F oven until they were bubbling, browned, and soft – about 20 minutes. Perfect.
- Slice a hard-boiled egg and sprinkle the whites and yolks across the leaves.
- Avocado slices are a great idea. If you’re taking this salad out on the town (you know, to a friend’s home), drizzle the avocado with lemon or lime, so they don’t brown.
- Last, add ranch dressing (or Blue Cheese pieces or dressing). The ranch dressing can be homemade or store bought. If you use store bought croutons, crush them up well before adding them to the top of the salad giving it a variation in crumb and texture. Add salt and pepper.
- Ready to serve.
(recipe adapted from Joy the Baker)
