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Warm bacon, kumara, bean and blue cheese salad

Warm bacon, kumara, bean and blue cheese salad

This is a lovely rustic warm salad which is great to eat any time of the year including winter. The strong dominant flavours of bacon, blue cheese, balsamic and kumara are tempered and balanced by the beans, rocket and pinenuts, so yum!

Serve this dish in the oven dish that you’ve cooked the kumara in and then add all the other components – how good is that?

Ingredients

800 gms kumara, peeled and cut into 3-4 cms chunks – I generally use the orange variety

1/3 cup of olive oil

1 packet of green beans, ends trimmed

1 tbs balsamic vinegar

1 bunch/ supermarket packet of rocket

150 gms approx. of streaky bacon or as many strips as you can fit on your large frypan. You can use an 80 gm packet of pancetta or prosciutto if you prefer. I have used all three and they all work well!

100 gms of creamy blue cheese

1 packet of pine nuts from your supermarket

 

Cooking instructions

 

  1. You can blanch the kumara first but I simply put the kumara chunks in an oven baking tray, drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and season with salt and cracked pepper
  2. Bake in oven on 230 for approx. 40 mins until soft and browning
  3. While kumara is cooking, steam or blanch the beans for 3mins, refresh and set aside
  4. Quickly toast the pine nuts on low-med heat, watching carefully – don’t burn them, the toasting won’t take long!
  5. Cook the bacon in a non-stick frypan without oil until nicely crisp. Remove and place on some handee towel and before serving, break into shards
  6. Mix remaining oil with the vinegar and season with salt and cracked pepper
  7. Remove kumara from the oven, drop in the beans and dressing and mix together, leaving for 2 mins
  8. I like to serve this dish on the dining table in the oven tray so add the bacon, rocket, crumble the blue cheese, gently mix and top with the pine nuts

 

Serves 4