This is one of my favourite super easy salads to make. It's delicious, filling and so satisfying. It's not THE healthiest salad out there, but since it's so filling, no need to eat any kind of bread with it, though you can if you want. I've gotten quite a few complements from people (served as a starter) and make it all the time when I'm staying at my sister's for lunch. I've made many versions and variations of this recipe, which I will elaborate in the extended version of the recipe. Like last time I'll do a short and a long version of the recipe. Whenever I make a new recipe I tend to read it through at least once completely before I make my shopping list and do the actual shopping. Even while just reading through it and writing down the ingredients, I'm thinking on what kind of variations I want to do to better suit my tastes, or in the case I can't find one of the ingredients. And before I get down to cooking, I generally write down a shorter version of the recipe to use while cooking. So that's basically my reasoning behind this two levels of recipe in case you were wondering. :) Anyway, let's get to it. This recipe is also great for those who generally don't like salads, or kids, because it contains so many fruits! It's basically a hearty fruit salad! It can be made ahead if you want to take it with you for lunch, and it stays delicious. If you're using a lettuce that gets 'soggy' easy, keep it separate from the rest and just mix it in before eating. Besides the melon, I think you have a lot of freedom in what kind of fruit you want to put in. I'll put all the ones I use in the extended recipe. In the short recipe I put my standard choices.
Ingredients
- Feta cheese (200 g / 7 oz)
- Bacon (200 g / 7 oz)
- 1 (Cantaloup) Melon
- Rucola/Arugula/Rocket lettuce (200g)
- 1 Apple
- 1 Pear
- Handful of grapes
- Honey
- Lemon juice
- Olive oil
Short instructions
- Make vinaigrette: Mix well: 1 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Cut the fruit in bite-sized pieces.
- Cook the bacon until just crispy.
- Cook the bacon until just crispy.
- Put fruit in bowl, top with arugula, crumble over feta cheese, add bacon and drizzle with vinaigrette.
Extended Recipe
Ingredients
- Feta cheese: Doesn't matter which brand, but do try to go for real Greek feta cheese. I've seen cheese made from cow milk (instead of sheep) which looks like feta, but trust me it's way less flavourful. Plus we need to support the Greek economy right now, right? ;)
- Bacon: I buy mine already cut into small pieces, but you can get thick strips of bacon and cut them up yourself. Especially if you want to make this a bit healthier, I would recommend doing that so you can cut a bit of the fat (white bits) off before cutting it into small pieces. If you want to skip the bacon altogether you can replace it with some kind of salty smoked leaner meat (horse for example), just make sure it has a salty, meaty flavour. But I really do prefer to use bacon.
- Melon: The best kind to use is a really ripe, sweet cantaloup melon. But if you find that too expensive, or just can't find it a ripe sweet honeydew, canary melon, ... is also pretty good.
- Arugula: I prefer arugula, since it's slightly bitter, to counteract that sweetness of the fruit, and it holds best against getting soggy if you have leftovers (which I rarely do), but you can definitely substitute it with other kinds of lettuce, like radicchio, Belgian/curly endives or romaine, all also slightly bitter, perhaps even raw spinach can be used, though I've never tried that. If you're really not for bitter lettuces (like some kids are), feel free to just use some regular lettuce, it'll still be pretty tasty!
- Use preferably 3 or 4 of the following: apple, pear, grapes, peach or plum. I have tried to add other fruits like kiwi, mango, etc. but found they were less complementary. Feel free to experiment though! Obviously the riper these fruits are, the tastier your salad is going to be. But the star fruit in this salad is definitely the melon, so pay the most attention to that.
- Honey: Any will do I think.
- Lemon juice: Fresh is best, but out of a bottle works too. If you don't have enough, or none at all, use some white wine vinegar to counteract that honey sweetness.
- Olive oil: If you want to support the Greek economy again, go for Greek, but feel free to use any kind.
- Lemon juice: Fresh is best, but out of a bottle works too. If you don't have enough, or none at all, use some white wine vinegar to counteract that honey sweetness.
- Olive oil: If you want to support the Greek economy again, go for Greek, but feel free to use any kind.
- Nuts/Seeds: Feel free to add your favourite nuts or seeds to this recipe for added taste and crunch, and like the arugula, a bit of bitterness in the case of most nuts/seeds. I like to use sunflower seeds, lightly toasted in a pan (keep an eye on it, it'll burn easily).
Detailed instructions
- Make vinaigrette: Mix 1 tablespoon (tbsp) of honey, 1 tbsp of lemon juice, 1/2 tbsp of olive oil, salt and pepper. If the honey is too thick or sugared, and won't mix well in the vinaigrette, put it in the microwave for 10-20 sec on high to melt it down. Taste and adjust proportions of everything to your liking! This is just an estimate of what I do, I always taste and add some more sweet/sour/seasoning as I see fit.
- Cut the fruit in bite sized pieces. I prefer to cut the melon in slightly larger chunks and the rest of the fruit quite small (even the grapes in at least 4, usually 8 pieces). But I have a bit of an obsession with wanting to cut all elements of things like a salad very small, so I can at least try to have a bit of everything in every bite, but obviously that makes the cutting process a lot longer. Put all your fruit pieces in a big bowl and mix them.
- If needed cut your thick strips of bacon in small bits and cook in a pan until just crispy. Don't add any additional fat to cook, the fat of the bacon will melt and be enough. If you want it to be healthier cut of (part of) the fat before you cut it into small pieces and make sure to drain (on some paper towel) your bacon before adding it to the salad. In the other direction, feel free to add some of the bacon grease to the vinaigrette if you want extra bacon goodness flavour in your salad.
- If you want to add any: toast your (chopped up if necessary) seeds or nuts in a pan.
- Wash your chosen lettuce and cut it up if it's a bit larger and add to the fruit.
- Crumble up your feta really finely over all of the lettuce, used your hand to crumble.
- Add bacon bits and drizzle vinaigrette on top. Feel free to make a little more vinaigrette and add extra on your plate if you want to.
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| Variation - Smoked horse meat instead of bacon |
If you want to make this dish vegetarian-friendly, try it without the bacon, it's still really good! But then I definitely recommend adding some kind of seeds or nuts.
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Variation - Honeydew melon, with arugula, feta, sunflower seeds and the honey dressing |
Plating
I've never plated this dish in a fancy way. As a starter I'll usually just use my big bamboo salad bowl, and make sure to arrange the layers nicely and really cross-drizzle the vinaigrette before just serving the bowl. Depending on which fruits you use this salad has really pretty colours, so it also looks good served on a plate. If plating separately I would recommend making the layers on the plate with care and drizzling some vinaigrette on top and to the sides. Next time I make it I'll be sure to try to make a pretty plate out of it, but simply haven't gotten around to it.
Source: Own recipe, inspired by dish eaten at café dewerf (in Leuven, Belgium)
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