Friday, April 20, 2012

Breakfast Salad and 3 Spoon Dressing (GAPS : grain-free : gluten-free : primal : paleo)


We're coming to the end of local lettuce season here, and enjoying lettuce from my mom's garden.  Crispy bacon and sliced boiled eggs pair nicely, especially when drizzled with my family's favorite salad dressing: 3 Spoon Dressing!  This salad makes a great meal for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Breakfast Salad
Serves 2
  • 6 slices cooked bacon*
  • 4 eggs, preferably from pastured hens (older eggs will peel more easily)
  • romaine lettuce
  • celtic sea salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 3 Spoon Dressing (recipe follows)
  1. Boil the eggs.  My method to make sure the egg yolks are cooked perfectly (and not pasty-dry) is to place the eggs in a small saucepan and cover with water.  Place the pot over med-high heat.  As soon as the water starts to boil, turn off the heat, put a lid on the pot, and set a timer for 8 minutes.  As soon as the timer goes off, dump the hot water, then cover the eggs with cool water and lots of ice. The yolks will be cooked through, but still nice and moist.
  2. Meanwhile, wash the lettuce and tear it into bite-sized pieces.  My method for quick-and-easy lettuce preparation is to rip the lettuce straight into the basket of a salad spinner.  Fill the salad spinner with water and slosh the lettuce around to wash it.  Then pull the basket out and let the water drain.  Repeat the washing once more with fresh water.  Then drain the basket and use the salad spinner to dry the lettuce.
  3. Peel and slice the eggs. I like to use an egg slicer, but you could just slice them with a knife.
  4. Arrange the lettuce on plates.  Crumble the cooked bacon over the top.
  5. Add the sliced eggs, and sprinkle each piece of egg with a little salt.  
  6. Grind some pepper over the top of the salad.
  7. Top the salad with 3 Spoon Dressing. Enjoy!
3 Spoon Dressing
  • Dijon mustard (Natural Value brand gives the best flavor for this recipe)
  • Mild-flavored raw honey
  • Melted bacon grease 
  • Mayonnaise, preferably homemade
  1. Mix equal parts of dijon mustard and honey.
  2. Drizzle the honey mustard over the salads.
  3. Drizzle about 1-2 Tb of melted bacon grease over each salad.
  4. Drizzle about 1 Tb mayonnaise over each salad. If you are using storebought mayo (which is much thicker than homemade mayo), you may want to mix it in with the honey mustard so it will be pourable.
*Bacon is listed as not allowed on the GAPS food listThe GAPS diet is based on the SCD diet. According to the SCD-legal and illegal list, "Smoked bacon that has been fried very crisply is allowed once per week. There are sugar-free bacons available and if you are able to find a source of sugar-free bacon, you do not have to limit your consumption to once per week. Usually the low sodium varieties do not contain sugar but check the labels carefully.My family has had bacon about once/week ever since the first few months of the GAPS diet were completed.

6 comments:

Mary Voogt said...

Mmmm. I love salad for breakfast!! Your dressing sounds very similar to what I always use. I mix homemade mayo, honey and mustard. Sometimes I add extra EVOO. If I don't have homemade mayo I mix an egg yolk, honey, mustard and EVOO. And If I'm really pressed for time I skip the egg yolk and just mix the mustard, mayo and EVOO. Regardless it's my FAVORITE!!

Jill said...

Adding some fresh tomato would make it sort of a BLT breakfast salad!

Rebecca said...

This looks delicious. I think I will try it for a lunch sometime soon.

Julie said...

I love salad for breakfast too, which is amazing to me since it wasn't until the gaps diet that I would have ever considered it. I'll be trying this dressing for sure.

liz said...

I made this for dinner tonight. It was so delicious! Thanks for posting this yummy recipe. Now, I'll have to remember to have it for breakfast sometime!

Sarah Smith said...

Oh, we usually eat this for dinner too! I just call is breakfast salad because of the bacon and eggs!