Bacon Tempura Salad With Yogurt And Honey Dressing

Last Monday, when Sam was craving a bacon fix and was asking if we had bacon in the freezer, Speedy and I told her about an extraordinary way to cook bacon that we saw on TV. Neither Speedy nor I have tried executing the dish. It was just one of those items in our to-do list filed away in a mental folder marked wicked, decadent, with a probability of turning out delicious.

Sam, however, did not need a lot of prodding. She asked me how to make tempura batter and I told her half-absentmindedly as we were on a Harry Potter DVD marathon. Some twenty minutes later, we were all munching on bacon tempura. The plate was almost empty when she asked if that was really all there was to the dish. The bacon tempura was perfect without anything else but, okay, I told her exactly how the golden crispy strips of salty, fatty meat were served in the Food Network snippet that we saw. They were served on top of a vegetable salad, I said to her. A day later, we were at the supermarket buying salad vegetables, and more bacon. Just look at how the dish turned out.

Except for the salad dressing which I volunteered to make, Sam and Alex did the bacon tempura salad between themselves. Sam cooked the bacon tempura while Alex prepped the vegetables. Sam assembled the dish and then drizzled some of the dressing.

Recipe: Bacon tempura salad with yogurt and honey dressing

Ingredients

1 large clove of garlic, grated
1/4 c. of extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c. of plain yogurt
juice of one lemon
2 tbsps. of honey
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 tsp. of chopped parsley

Instructions

Make the dressing

Stir together the olive oil, yogurt, and garlic until smooth. Add the lemon juice, honey, and some salt and pepper. Taste. Add more salt and pepper, as needed. Stir in the parsley.

Heat the cooking oil until fine wisps of smoke start to appear. Dip each strip of bacon in the batter and fry, a few pieces at a time, until golden and crisp. Drain on a stack of paper towels.

Time to assemble the salad. Line a large plate with the shredded lettuce. Scatter the cucumber and tomato slices on top. Pile the bacon tempura on top of the vegetables.

Drizzle some of the yogurt and honey dressing over the bacon tempura and vegetables. Serve the rest on the side.