Baran’s BLAT Salad
Chef Jason Baran
Baran’s 2239
Hermosa Beach, Calif.
BLAT stands for bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato—an update of the classic BLT sandwich. Chef Jason Baran deconstructs the sandwich into a summery salad featuring peak season cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes and frisee, along with the avocados and bacon. A creamy blue cheese-dill dressing ties it all together.
Ingredients
Blue Cheese and Dill Dressing
1 cup mayonnaise
½ cup buttermilk
½ cup blue cheese crumbles
3 tbsp. chopped fresh dill
2 tbsp. white wine vinegar
2 tsp. salt
½ tsp. hot pepper sauce
Salad
3 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
3 cups cucumber slices
3.4 cup radish slices
½ cup lemon juice
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp. salt
12 heads frisee
3 ripe avocados, peeled, seeded and diced
1½ cups cooked, chopped bacon (6 oz.)
¾ cup blue cheese crumbles
Homemade or packaged garlic-flavored croutons
Steps
- For dressing, in medium bowl, whisk together all ingredients. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
- For salad, in large bowl, combine cherry tomato halves, cucumber slices, radish slices, lemon juice, olive oil and salt; toss to combine. Let marinate 5 to 10 minutes.
- Cut bottoms off frisee and separate leaves. In another large bowl, combine frisee, avocado, bacon, blue cheese crumbles and 12 ounces blue cheese-dill dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper and add more dressing if needed.
- On each of 12 plates, layer tomato-cucumber mix and frisee mix; repeat layers. Top each salad with about 1/3 cup croutons.
Photo courtesy of California Avocado Commission