What’s For Lunch? Smokey Salad

Happy holiday weekend! I thoroughly enjoyed my holiday. My wife and I took a trip out to the Pocono mountains in Pennsylvania to visit with some family and friends. We relaxed, kayaked, and ate some really amazing meals! One of which was a grilled slab-bacon. I’ve done fried bacon, I’ve done baked bacon. This was the first time I had tried grilled bacon. And it was amazing!! Of course, it helps that I used the Vermont Smoke And Cure Slab Bacon, which is by far the most delicious thing I have ever eaten! Ok, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. But not by much…

Today’s meal is the result of a serious craving. The grilling this weekend got the smoked meat flavor back in to my head. Do you ever have serious cravings that just need to be resolved before you can move on with your life? Well, I do. And right now it’s for that rich, lustrous flavor that can only come from smoked meat, smoked oil, and some smokey flavoring additives!

What you’ll need:

• Mixed greens
• Cilantro (1 bunch, just the leaves)
• 3-4 Crimini Mushrooms, sliced
• 8 oz. Smoked Turkey, chopped
• 1 cup Green Onions, chopped (or chives)
• 1 large Hass Avocado, chopped
• 2 tablespoons Flax Seeds, whole
• 2 tablespoons Smoked Sesame Seed Oil

Serves: 2

Oh, the smokey flavor! I used the smoked sesame seed oil because making a “smoked olive oil” is challenging and time consuming. And it’s not readily commercially available. I have seen some variations on smoked additives to make the olive oil a smokey oil, and it can work quite well. I’ve personally been playing with the idea of using smoked garlic as an additive to olive oil, just to see how that would come out. But it’s not a normally available item, and if you’re going to make it yourself (I highly recommend keeping your eyes peeled for when I try the smoked garlic) it takes quite a bit of prep time for this salad. On the order of several weeks.

This combination of ingredients just screams “smokey” with every bite. In some bites, you’ll get some of the flax seed, maybe some avocado, and the green onion flavor. It will be heavy with the scents and flavors of the smoked sesame seed oil. In other bites you will have the cilantro and turkey with the smoked sesame seed oil and flax seed keeping that smoked flavor completely central to your meal. The smoked sesame seed oil is a strong flavor, but thankfully not overpowering, so each of the supporting flavors can contribute to your enjoyment of the overall theme of the meal. And it comes out great!

Questions:

• Do you ever get really heavy food cravings? Are they for healthy foods, or for sweets?
• What do you crave today? Maybe a small craving?
• Do you ever get food cravings that you know are unhealthy, and that you’re going to avoid at all costs? How do you avoid it? What do you fill that void with?