I just realized that I have been misspelling farro forever. Sorry about that. BLTs are so simple and quick to throw together, but they are one of my favorite sandwiches. I serve them on my homemade buttermilk sandwich bread, which I wrote a separate post on so I could go into more detail about baking bread. You can find that post here. This bread is so versatile. Soft and chewy and flavorful. Any other type of bread works too. Any BLT is a good BLT.
I’ve talked about my oven cooking method for bacon here. It is pretty much the only way I cook bacon because I love the ease of clean up.
I use romaine for my BLTs because I like the crunch it has, but any lettuce is good. Of course home grown, or farmer’s market tomatoes are what really make this sandwich stand out, but if you don’t have those (I didn’t today), store tomatoes will work. They just won’t be as flavorful.
I love Duke’s mayo. I had not had it until we moved to the south and now it is all I will use. It is perfect for these sandwiches.
I was totally drawn to a farro salad recipe I saw on Not without Salt, because it has both fresh rhubarb (when do you ever see a recipe with uncooked rhubarb?), and preserved lemon, which I love and have a huge jar of that I made and am always looking for ways to use. I modified the recipe quite a lot to use what I had around in my fridge. I liked the sour, sweet, herbal flavor of this salad.
BLTs for 5:
- 10 slices buttermilk sandwich bread
- few tbsp Duke’s mayo
- romaine lettuce leaves
- sliced tomato
- 1-2 packages cooked bacon (depending on if you want extra bacon, but who doesn’t?)
- salt and pepper to taste
If you like your bread toasted for BLTs, toast it first. I like lightly toasted bread, where it is still somewhat soft and doesn’t hurt the roof of your mouth while eating. Spread some mayo on the bread (be generous here) and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place as many slices of bacon on as you like and top with lettuce, tomato, and the other slice of bread. Slice down the middle and serve.
Farro salad:
- 8 ounces farro, cooked and cooled
- 1 stalk rhubarb, woody ends removed and thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup cucumber diced small
- 1/2 cup diced apple
- 1/2 cup diced fennel
- 1 tbsp minced preserved lemon
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp dried dill
- a few tbsp crumbled feta
- 2 cups arugula
- salt
- few tbsp of plain greek yogurt
Combine the cooked farro, scallions, rhubarb, cucumbers, preserved lemon, oil, and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Toss in the mint and arugula right before serving. Put a dollop of yogurt onto your serving plate and top it with the salad.