Wild Rocket, Smoked Bacon, Sweet Roasted Pepper and Camembert Salad with Sourdough Garlic Croutons

When I'm not in the mood for carbs, I often take my favourite sandwich fillings and convert them into salads. This dish is a sandwich that I normally make with a sourdough baguette. However, trading the bread for sourdough garlic croutons is a reminder that no-one loves a health fanatic.

You could easily make a club sandwich-converted salad the same way, with chicken, bacon, lettuce, tomato and cucumber - hardly a particularly healthy alternative, but any gesture in the right direction will do for me (I may even try a Whopper or Zinger Tower salad one day, if the mood strikes).

Anyway, get busy with the salads and that winter spare tyre will simply melt away. Today is actually the first warm day since October last year. Gotta do something about that spare tyre, before the spring really springs...

While your bodyweight plummets, your wallet-weight will stay nice and plumptious with this budget recipe. £2.50 per large serving for this dish, is all it'll cost you.

Serves 4

Rocket, Bacon, Roasted Pepper and Camembert Salad

INGREDIENTS:

200g wild rocket
200g smoked bacon lardons
4 tablespoons of sunflower oil
2 sweet red peppers, sliced into 2cm wide strips
200g camembert, cut into 2cm dice
100ml olive oil
Juice of 2 lemons
Pinches of salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 200c. Dress a large serving platter with the rocket. In a frying pan, fry the lardons in half of the sunflower oil until crisp, and allow to cool. In the meantime, roast the peppers, with the other half of the sunflower oil, in the oven until slightly charred in places and the flesh is soft and translucent (30 minutes approx). Arrange  the cooled lardons, peppers and the camembert chunks over the rocket. Mix the olive oil, lemon juice and salt an pepper in a bowl and dress the salad. Sprinkle with the warm sourdough garlic croutons immediately before serving.

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Sourdough Garlic Croutons

INGREDIENTS:

Half of a sourdough baguette, cut into 1cm thick slices
4 tablespoons of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Handful of parsley leaves, finely chopped
Pinches of salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 200c. In a bowl, gently toss the bread in the oil, garlic, parsley and salt and pepper until evenly coated. Place the bread in a single layer on a baking sheet, turning once until golden and crunchy (15 minutes total, approx). Serve warm.