Happy Wednesday- we’re halfway to the holiday weekend!! WOOHOO! Today I am sharing my experience making the most delicious salad by my personal, modern day Julia Child- Tieghan Gerard of Half Baked Harvest. This salad would be a fabulous option for any 4th of July party or barbecue if you’re still looking for something to make!
If you’ve been reading my blog for the past couple weeks you know I’ve been testing out recipes by the amazing food blogger Half Baked Harvest and sharing my experience making them as a college girl just trying to learn more about cooking! (I refuse to make microwavable mac & cheese when I have my very own kitchen next semester!!) It has been so fun doing this.
Lets get to talking about food now, shall we?! This salad was perfect for a hot summer night. It was light but filling! And it was what I like to call healthy-ish, my personal favorite way of eating. Sneaky healthy but with a few treats mixed in (can you say burrata cheese, and home-made croutons…)! Eating healthy-ish makes me feel good but also keeps me happy 🙂
Homemade Crouton Goodness
The first step in the recipe is to make the croutons. HBH suggests using Ciabatta bread, but I could honestly see any fresh bread doing the trick here. They don’t need to be in super small pieces (I kinda think the bigger the better with bread…) Who knew some bread, olive oil, garlic, and salt could create such magic? I couldn’t stop eating these while making the rest of the salad.
Dress it Up
The next thing you’re supposed to do is make the dressing. This salad is a twist on a classic Caesar salad, however, the dressing has some very different ingredients in it than a typical Caesar dressing. Weirdly enough, it tastes very similar to Caesar dressing.
My dressing turned out to be rather thick, actually a little too thick. I even added extra lemon juice and olive oil to try to make it more liquidy/creamy. It is made in the blender actually so I probably also could have blended it for longer to create a more creamy consistency.
Skew You
The next step is to deal with the chicken. In my last Annie & Tieghan post I talked about how I was proud of myself for dealing with raw meat because that is not my forte. But I did it again! And this time I really had to handle it…
You have to combine chopped bite size chicken breast with pesto, salt, and crushed red pepper. She just uses the word “combine” but I felt the best way to do this was to use my hands. This way I was sure the pesto, salt, and red pepper got on each of the pieces of chicken.
Next you just place each of the bite sized raw chicken pieces on a skewers and throw those bad boys on the grill. I personally just handed the plate to my dad and said please grill these… so I can’t speak about grilling just yet!
Pile It All Up
While my dad graciously grilled the chicken it was time to put together the rest of the salad. Its pretty simple- chop up cherry tomatoes and place them on a bed of romaine. Add some burrata- in my case, I like a lot of that! Lastly, top with some thyme, chives, and basil, and olive oil.
It sounds quick but don’t forget to factor in time for washing and chopping!!
Also P.S. we kept the croutons separate because my sister has Celiac! If your tummy is good with gluten toss them right on top of the salad.
I would say this salad is honestly somewhat a cross between a Caesar salad and Caprese salad. It is delicious and definitely worth a try!
Click here for the full HBH blog post and recipe!
To wrap up my experience…
Something I am Proud of: Eating a salad for dinner… does that count?
Something I Learned: I learned an easy, simple way to prepare chicken! Now I just need to work on the grilling situation.
A Bump in the Road: The dressing… like I said it was way too thick. But I’ll just keep blending next time!
Shop the Post
If you want to read my other Annie and Julia Posts click below!
VOL. 1 THREE CHEESE NECTARINE WHITE PIZZA
VOL. 2 SLOW COOKER BRAISED HAWAIIAN PINEAPPLE CHICKEN TACOS
