It’s a Salad - Well, Sort Of

One of the best things about a challenge is that it often takes you in a direction that you’ve never quite considered before. And sometimes it takes you somewhere so simple you can’t quite believe that you’ve not tried it before.

This month’s Random Recipes did just that. It has been teamed up with Alpha Bakes, and it’s going right back to the beginning, with the recipes - randomly selected, of course - going with ‘A’ as the theme. So for today’s recipe we have to thank the three people involved in the challenge organisation - Dom, Ros and Caroline.

So it’s quite simple to get the recipe this month, randomly pick the book (number 12 for me - the ever wonderful The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater) and point randomly - eyes shut, naturally - at something in the index beginning with A. All well and good, but it appears I’m an idiot and managed to initially point at something beginning with B. Fail. Attempt two was more successful, with the A in question this time round actually beginning with an A - it was ‘Avocado’.

This couldn’t have turned out better, since I’m currently going through a bit of an avocado phase (I didn’t like them until about four months ago, now I’m eating them whenever I can). In this case the recipe paired it up with bacon, which obviously makes it even better. And what’s not to love about that?

In actual fact, it’s not really a recipe, but it was in the index so I’m going to run with it. It was something thrown together at the last minute based on what was in the house (so Mr Slater tells us) when people came over unexpectedly. Since this slight mad dash to feed based on what’s at hand is something I do on a regular basis I fully approve of this recipe and made it for a lazy weekend lunch. My only slight query comes from the fact that he calls it a salad. Avocado with bacon on bread doesn’t exactly sound like a salad to me; but then again, who am I to question such things? And we’re meant to eat salads because they’re healthy and such like, right? So a salad it shall be.

As you might expect from the combination of avocado and bacon it’s mouth-wateringly delicious. It’s perfect for when you need a foodie fix but the idea of properly cooking is just not something you want to consider. I think I’ve found my new go-to snack.

Avocado & Bacon ‘Salad’

This recipe comes from a comment made in Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries, it’s not a full recipe in the book, so I’ve expanded it a little here. I also added in some cracked black pepper and the balsamic vinegar, whilst substituting the rye bread for a fresh farmhouse loaf. It feeds one, and if you’re hungry and double the recipe it will probably still feed one.

Ingredients

2 slices of bacon
half a ripe avocado
1 thick slice of fresh crusty bread
black pepper
balsamic vinegar

Directions

Cut the fat off your bacon and put it under the grill on a reasonably high heat. Whilst the bacon is cooking, cut a thick slice from your bread (mine was a good 4cm) and lay it on a plate.

Peel your avocado (you’re probably just going to eat the second half anyway) and cut a wedge out. Using the gap left by the wedge, take a sharp knife and cut fairly thin (a few millimetres thick) slices, layering them along the bread as they come off the fruit. It’ll use about half the avocado. Take a fork and mush the avocado into the bread a little, then top with a little bit of crushed black pepper (don’t add salt - your bacon will take care of that).

When you’re bacon’s cooked remove it from the grill and cut into thin slices, layering them along the avocado first one way, then the other. Take your balsamic vinegar and drizzle it over the top, letting it drip off the bacon, through the avocado and into the bread.

Sit back, open wide and take a bite - then just munch and enjoy. Bliss.

Craig (213 Posts)

Edinburgh-dwelling, baking and food-obsessed, twenty-something adventure enthusiast. Runs on liberal amounts of coffee, cheese, cake and gin; bribable with same.