I was so floored that S loved the other salad and wanted to have it again, I thought we could do that, but with a twist. We both said more bacon. It's turkey bacon and NO not the HORRID bacon bits. This is @Butterball Turkey Bacon. I like turkey bacon. It's crisp, it's not too salty, and it doesn't give me heart burn.
This time I crisped it up in the microwave and chopped it smaller than previously. While we both agree more bacon was necessary, we also both agreed that smaller, crumbled style bits of bacon were what was needed to make this type of salad better. This lead me to make it crispier in the microwave.
The whole bacon and lettuce thing lead me to the BLT salad. I made a BLT bread salad once from Cooking Light. I know, this isn't bread salad. But I thought, "If you can make a panzanella style salad in BLT format, why can't you make a wilted salad in the BLT format?" You can. I did.
And it was good. And we ate it. The tomatoes add nice color and flavor. They play off the sweetness of the dressing. I accidentally purchased the mixed baby greens. Ya know. With baby kale and bok choy. It wasn't the same as spinach. Don't make the same mistake as I did and make sure you get the baby spinach. I didn't like the bitterness of the other greens in the package. Ick.
You also need to make sure the pan is good and hot, but not smoking hot for the scallops. They need a good amount of oil in the pan. I use a ton of cooking spray. We're trying to do that low fat thing, so tons of oil isn't really in our diet. The nutritionist has said we can use all the spray we want, just not straight out oil. Kind of makes sense, because we don't measure the oil, but we'll get tired of spraying the cooking spray. Go figure!
I wonder how many variations of this type of salad I can come up with. Or how many different types of scallop salad I can come up with. We'll see. I have to make the menu for the next week tonight. It will include some holiday baking for the parties this week. YIPEE! *snort*
Enjoy!
BLTS (Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Scallop) Salad
Ingredients
- 8 slices turkey bacon
- 1 pound large sea scallops
- 1/2 cup cider vinegar
- 1/2 brown sugar
- 4 cups baby spinach
- 2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
- 4 large hard boiled eggs, quartered
- Place the bacon on a microwave safe plate covered with a paper towel. Top with an additional paper towel and microwave on high 4 to 5 minutes, or until crispy. Remove and crumble.
- Rinse and dry the spinach very well and place in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
- Heat a large skillet coated with cooking spray over high heat. Season scallops with salt and pepper on both sides. Place scallops in the pan and sear 3 to 4 minutes on each side only turning them once. Remove from heat and keep warm.
- Combine the vinegar and sugar in a small bowl. Add to pan bring to a boil. Simmer until slightly thickened, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Pour hot dressing over the spinach, turning with tongs to coat. Add the bacon and tomatoes and toss until combined. Divide the spinach evenly among 4 dinner plates. Arrange eggs around the edges of the plate and top with 3 to 4 large scallops. Serve with crusty French bread.
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