Classic Chopped Salad

Chopped salads are such a classic West Coast thing. Having grown up in San Francisco and Hawaii, I consumed my fair share of them through the years, and when I'm craving a meal that requires no stove or oven time, it's my go-to. The ingredients change with whatever happens to be languishing away in my fridge on any given day, but this particular combo is especially good. It's definitely not the same in the winter months (when you shouldn't be consuming those tasteless, out-of-season tomatoes, anyway), so I've been making myself plates of this more and more often as August winds down. It's basically a conglomeration of a bunch of my very favorite ingredients--avocados, cheese, bacon, summer tomatoes....how could you go wrong? xo

Classic Chopped Salad
Adapted from My Father's Daughter, by Gwyneth Paltrow
Ingredients:
6 strips bacon
3 heads greenleaf lettuce, roughly chopped
1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, and diced
Handful of organic cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
1/2 cup Standby Vinaigrette (recipe below)

Directions:
Cook the bacon in a frying pan until crispy. Drain on paper towels and dice the crispy meat. Lay the lettuce down on a big platter. Scatter the bacon, avocado, tomato, and Gorgonzola over the lettuce in a mix or in rows, whatever you feel like. Dress with the vinaigrette and toss.

Standby Vinaigrette:
Ingredients:
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons real Vermont maple syrup
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Coarse salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Whisk together the mustard, maple syrup, and vinegar. Slowly whisk in the oils, and season with salt and pepper.