Be Vell! Today, we offer a recipe full of healthy nutrients that are essential to your gut and bone health, provide an excellent source of high-quality protein, and improve your cholesterol levels, among other benefits:
Health Benefits:
• Dates: healthy sugar replacement rich in protective antioxidants and great for gut and bone health.
• Lemon: supports heart and digestive health and provides weight control.
• Egg: an excellent quality protein that fuels your body with vitamin D.
• Olive oil: lowers the “bad” cholesterol and keeps the level of the good cholesterol up.
Ingredients:
• Any salad greens you desire, I used arugula and spring mix
• 3 strips of bacon, sliced in half
• 6 dates, pitted
• 3-4 oz crumbled blue cheese
• 3 lemons, preferably Meyer lemons with little pith and thin skin, sliced thin (.5 cm)
• 2 eggs, boiled however you like them
• Cherry tomatoes, halved
• 4 tbs honey
• 1/2 cup olive oil
Method:
Bacon-Wrapped Dates:
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Take one bacon half and wrap your date with it. On a parchment-lined baking sheet place your bacon-wrapped date seem down.
• Repeat for the rest, and bake for ten minutes then flip the bacon for 5 minutes if you’re using thin-cut bacon and 15 minutes for thicker-cut bacon
• When done, drain on a paper towel-lined plate.
• Slice thin circles for the salad or leave whole.
Caramelized Lemon Dressing:
• Heat up 1/4 cup of your olive oil in a large sauté pan (enough to fit all lemon slices) over medium heat.
• Carefully add the lemon slices (not the ends) to the pan.
• Sear each side until amber and caramelized. Reduce the heat to medium-low as needed. Look for the bits and juices around the lemon getting darker and darker, lift the lemon with a pair of tongues, if it’s golden amber, flip it, otherwise, keep searing.
• Make sure you keep an eye on the pan at all times, the natural sugars can burn really fast.
• Once the lemons are seared, place them on the cutting board. Finely chop the cooked lemons until they roughly turn into a paste. Brush off all those caramelized bits on the bottom of the pan and pour the leftover oil in the mixing bowl.
• Add the caramelized lemon paste to the mixing bowl. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of olive oil to the bowl, the honey, a pinch of salt, and black pepper. Whisk fast to emulsify with a spoon.
• Add 1/4 cup of water to the bowl and whisk to combine. Try the dressing and add more honey as needed, to taste.
Toss your greens in your dressing then top with everything and enjoy!
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