BLT Chopped Salad

The Southern husband and I are inordinately fond of both wedge salads and BLTs.  They are both scrumptiously delicious in their own endearing ways, and I’ve waxed poetic about both of them on this very site.  But they both share one teeny tiny flaw, which is that they are a little unwieldy to eat.  They require knives and slicing and dripping and napkins, none of which has ever stopped us even for a second, but still, I took it as a challenge.  And so…I put the two of them together and CHOPPED them.  As in, BLT chopped salad!

Now, a wedge salad is usually a wedge of iceberg lettuce topped with blue cheese dressing, tomato and bacon, and a BLT is…well, I don’t need to tell you what a BLT is, right?  So I took the following from both of these lovelies:

1. Bacon.  Natch.

2. Lettuce. I used the romaine variety that I like on my BLTs instead of the iceberg kind.  Sorry, icebergs everywhere.

3. Tomatoes. I used sweet little cherry tomatoes, because they are so easy to chop in half and because they are just plain delicious.

4. Blue cheese dressing.  The homemade kind, which will take you two shakes to whirl up.

Start by making the dressing, which is as easy as mixing up all the ingredients with a fork (or if you are lazy like me, in your little baby food processor/chopper thing).

Now chop up the bacon, the lettuce and the tomatoes into bite sized pieces and put it all together in a mixing bowl.  Wash your hands up good, drizzle on as much dressing as you like, and mix the whole thing together gently with your hands.  I know, but it’s the very best way to toss salad.  It is.  Trust me.

Grind on a little fresh ground pepper and there you have it – a cross between a wedge salad and a BLT that requires only a fork and an appetite – no dribbling, no cutting, no muss and no fuss.  Only deliciousness.  And if you happen to have some nice juicy steak slices on the side…well, I’ll just let you think about that for a moment or two.

BLT Chopped Salad

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• Yield: 4 servings

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Ingredients

For The Salad

• 1 head romaine lettuce
• 5 slices bacon, cooked and torn into bite-sized pieces
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
• Fresh ground pepper for garnish

For The Dressing

• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 2 tablespoons buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 ounces crumbled blue cheese
• Milk for thinning as needed

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Instructions

1. Make the dressing by combining all the dressing ingredients except for the milk and stirring with a fork until well combined (some chunks of blue cheese are good – it shouldn’t be totally smooth). Thin it with just enough milk that it is still thick but pourable.
2. Chop the bacon, lettuce and tomato into bite sized pieces and place in a mixing bowl. Pour dressing on top and toss gently with washed hands until combined. Grind pepper on top. That’s it – you’re done!