Bacon, Lettuce and Grilled Tomato Salad

Submitted by diner524

"This is a recipe that I found in my "Weber's Charcoal Grilling: The Art of Cooking with Live Fire" cookbook that sounds so delicious!!! I have adapted it a bit, or provided some items more likely to have on hand. I didn't add this to the instructions, but I would saute the shallots in the bacon grease for a few minutes, to soften them and take a bit of the bite out of the raw shallots, but that is just me."

 

• Ready In: 27mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 226.79 g bacon, cut into bite sized pieces (reserve all the drippings)
• 29.58 ml shallots, minced
• 22.18 ml red wine vinegar (it called for sherry vinegar)
• 4.92 ml fresh thyme (or 1/4 - 1/2 tsp dried)
• 1.23 ml kosher salt
• 0.61 ml fresh ground black pepper
• 473.19 ml cherry tomatoes, stemmed
• 1 large crusty sandwich roll, cut in half lengthwise
• 340.19 g lettuce, torn into bit size pieces (your choice)
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced (white and light green parts only)
• olive oil, as needed

directions

1. Dice up the bacon into bite size pieces. Place a large skillet over medium heat and cook the bacon until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan, making sure to reserve the bacon grease. Pour the grease into a measuring cup, you want to have 6 tablespoons of bacon grease and if you have less than that, add a little olive oil to top off the mixture.
2. In a medium bowl, mix the shallot, vinegar, thyme, salt and pepper. Slowly add the bacon grease to the bowl while whisking.
3. Add a little bit of the dressing to the tomatoes. Grill the tomatoes over medium heat in a grill basket, or just on the grill. Cook until the skins begin to crack and char. Roughly 4-5 minutes.
4. While the tomatoes are cooking, cut the roll in half. Then brush the cut sides of the roll with a little of the dressing. Then grill the roll over direct medium heat until the bread begins to char and develop nice grill marks, but watch closing and don't burn it. Remove the bread from the grill and cut into large croutons.
5. Arrange a bed of lettuce into individual bowls and top each with some of the bacon, tomatoes, scallions and croutons. Drizzle some(too taste) of the dressing over the top and enjoy.