The following salad was dinner Friday night. Yes, Big Guy ate a salad for dinner on a Friday night. I tell ya, it’s because of the warm maple bacon dressing. This was the perfect fall salad. It was light like a salad but had “harvest” flavors – like apple, maple, toasted pecans and well, bacon. Oh, and the blue cheese brie didn’t hurt either.
The assembly part is super easy. I decided not to mix it all up in a big bowl but to instead assemble on individual plates. Baby greens, a crisp apple, toasted pecans, a creamy and not-too-blue cheese and the bacon crumbles.
For the dressing, crisp up a few slices of bacon. Remove the bacon (that goes on the salad) and then cook diced shallots (about 1 1/2) in the bacon fat. Just do it. Don’t question this. It’s Friday night for goodness sake.
In a bowl, whisk together the maple syrup (the real stuff, y’all), whole grain mustard, red wine vinegar and pepper. Once the shallots are cooked, pour the maple syrup mixture in and whisk until thickened. Now drizzle over each salad – don’t be shy!
