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Bacon and Mozzarella winter salad with roasted veg

Bacon and Mozzarella Yum!!
Bacon and Mozzarella winter salad with roasted veg and sundried tomato infused olive oil Yum!!

I just had to share a pic of this lunch because I am so proud that I made it. I asked the question a while back What can you make with a vegetable box? and this is another sweet surprise.

What you see is cabbage, roast swede, onion and potato paired with bacon and mozzarella and drizzled with sundried tomato olive oil. To be honest I was a little nervous how it would taste because I cooked the swede last night and it didn’t seem to go well because it smelt and tasted a little bitter. I was expecting it to be sweet but to be fair nothing in the veg box was traditional stuff and I think this swede was a little off the beaten track too. So it probably needed some special handling.

Anywho, today I am not just relieved but very pleasantly surprised. I absolutely loved this whole meal so much that I want more and the cool thing is that this is actually a pretty darn healthy meal, even though it has plenty of bacon, mozzarella and olive oil. Either you understand the nutritional story behind this or you don’t but that is for my other blogs (create and fit).

Here the challenge was to find ways to use and hopefully love ingredients I would not normally use. The idea is to explore and enjoy culinary challenges. This meal involved cabbage and I previously asked what can you do with cabbage. It also included swede which I prefer roasted but this time I just combined it with some other roast veg as a basis for a winter salad. Something hearty and warming so it is seasonal and I always aim to pack the flavour in.

I think this meal shows I have learnt something from all the cooks and chefs I have watched because I also used each ingredient to create the flavour and texture of this dish, which minimised the extra seasoning required. The bacon provides the salt, the swede and onions provide some sugar and the bacon fat, mozzarella and olive oil provide a beautiful creamy texture which compliments all the ingredients. I used the cabbage as a winter version of lettuce because not only does it look similar but it doesn’t have a strong flavour. It’s good for adding a little crunch (from the fibre) and as a base note on which the other stronger flavours can stand. Cabbage also contains plenty of water which tones down some of the flavours and adds extra moisture to the dish along with plenty of water soluble vitamins.

I get the olive oil from a jar or sundried tomatoes when I have used all the tomatoes which makes it free. A little trick I have learnt and something which adds a whole new twist to anything I add it to.

So there we have it. I have learnt how to use two veg, swede and cabbage, in ways I wouldn’t have thought and I made a dish I really want to eat again. What a brilliant day 🙂

The photo is from my instagram page

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