Maple Bacon Salad

I love Whole Foods bacon!!!

Actually I love any bacon, but I especially love Whole Foods bacon. They smoke it themselves and it is scrumptious. I like all their flavors…especially jalapeno. I’ll drive across town to buy their jalapeno bacon.

Last Thanksgiving I discovered a new flavor they had created…MAPLE PUMPKIN. (Seriously, who ever thought of adding pumpkin to bacon?) OH MY WORD…so good.

I ended up building an entire salad around that bacon.  I thought you might like to try it this year.

Maple Bacon Salad

Ingredients:

Salad Greens (I use a mix of Spring Greens and Spinach – usually two large handfuls of each)

Sweet Maple Pecans (recipe below)

6-8 slices of Pumpkin Maple Bacon, cooked and crumbled (or just maple bacon if you don’t have a Whole Foods.)

1 large can (or two small) of Mandarin Oranges, drained but retain juice

Raisins or dried cranberries

Goat Cheese

Cornbread Croutons (how-to below)

 

 Sweet Maple Pecans:

1 ½ T. of butter

2 cups pecans (we like a lot…you could half this recipe if you wanted.)

Salt

3 T. Cinnamon

3 T. Maple Syrup (Today I actually used Agave Nectar because it was raining and I didn’t want to go to the grocery to buy it.  But it wasn’t as good as the Maple Syrup.)

Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat.

Toss pecans in butter

Add Cinnamon

Stir continually until pecans begin to brown.

Add maple syrup

Continue to stir until all nuts are coated, brown (not burnt) and getting crunchy.

Lightly salt. Sometimes I sprinkle sugar on them at this point too.

Pour in bowl and let cool. 

Once cool they are sticky and have to be broken apart like a praline. 

 

Cornbread Croutons

Make a batch of cornbread using your favorite mix or recipe. (I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free this time but my favorite is Jiffy with a little extra sugar added.) I made it the night before so I could have time for it to dry out a bit and chill.

Preheat oven to 350.

Cut half of your prepared cornbread in large squares or chunks.

Place on baking sheet in oven for 30 minutes.

Remove and pour 3 to 4 T of melted butter over it. Toss gently.

Return to oven until firm and golden brown.

(I like to add course ground black pepper to them as well.)

 

Citrus Vinaigrette Salad Dressing:

Mix the remaining mandarin orange juice with any basic bottled vinaigrette dressing.  Shake. (Or if you can find it, buy Brianna’s Home Style Saucy Ginger Mandarin Dressing.)

 

Assemble the salad:

In a large bowl mix Spring Greens and Spinach.  Layer on crumbled bacon, sweet maple pecans, mandarin oranges, raisins, goat cheese and cornbread croutons. Serve with Citrus Vinaigrette Dressing.

 

Extra: If you have leftover turkey, it would be great in here as well.