Roasted Avocado Bacon Salad with Kapowie Dressing

One of the things I'll miss about Summer is the sales on fresh veggies and fruit, avocados mainly. I stock pile them and put them in just about everything I can. I'm not a huge fan of salads (unlike Moe) but I do enjoy them once in awhile if they are chalk full of goodies. This salad is pretty plain by my standards but the salad dressing packs it with strong KAPOWIE. Seriously good and easy to make. It's very very good and I've made several batches of this for my dipping and cold pasta eating pleasure as well. Some cilantro jalapeno tomatillo dressings are very strong and really green in color. Trader Joe's has a pretty good one but I prefer to be able to control the ingredients and amounts. The peeps in my household all have varying degrees of hotness tolerances. Thanks to a friend who introduced me to a creamy garlic spread, I've come up with a mixture that pleases us all. 

Okay so I just totally ranted on about the dressing, on to the salad. Avocados are creamy on their own but when you roast them they take on a whole new level of creaminess. Add to that some tasty bacon, heirloom tomatoes and a sprinkling of cilantro and we have a winner in my book......perhaps next time I'll make it very decadent (did I just use that word to describe salad? But it's true.) and add a poached egg. I have to say, Moe prefers his avocados un-roasted in this salad, decide for yourself.

Salad Ingredients (enough for 6 servings):

2 Romain lettuce hearts, chopped

2 tomatoes, sliced (Heirloom Brandywines or something as meaty)

2 Large Avocado, pitted and sliced

2 Large Jalapenos, seeded

1 shallots, sliced and fried

2 tablespoons of minced cilantro

1/2 cup green onions

1 scallion, sliced 

1 pack of smoked bacon, cooked and chopped

Kapowie Cilantro Tomatillo Dressing

Directions:

Cook up the bacon until almost crisp. We will be finishing up the crisping process under the boiler later. Chop the bacon into nice bite size pieces and set aside.

Slice up the scallions and add to small skillet, drizzle with olive oil and fry until crisp. Set aside. Now that I write this out, I'm wondering why I didn't just crisp the scallion slices with the avocado and bacon in the oven.  

Peel and de-pit 2 large nicely ripened avocados and slice. Place slices onto a baking tray and drizzle with about 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. Place onto middle rack in oven and set the oven to broil at 330 degrees for about 15 minutes, keep the oven door slightly ajar.

Sprinkle the bacon pieces all over the tops of the avocado slices and place back into oven and continue to broil for another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, wash, pat dry and slice the 2 hearts of romaine, green onions and tomatoes and place in large serving dish. 

Remove the avocado tray from oven and let cool for about 10-15 minutes. Carefully arrange avocado/bacon mixture ontop of your greens, drizzle with Kapowie Dressing and a sprinkling of cilantro, serve with your favorite rolls or flatbread.