Revamp Your Classic BLT And Turn It Into A Savory Breakfast Salad

Salty, crisp, and savory, it's no wonder the BLT sandwich has become a lunchtime deli classic. Traditionally featuring a generous helping of smoky, crisp bacon, the juicy sweetness of ripe tomatoes, a few hearty slices of your favorite bread with a rich, decadent spread like mayonnaise, the BLT's infallible combination of savory flavors with a mix of satisfying textures makes it a culinary win in every sense of the phrase. But what if you could take all the savory crispness of that classic deli sandwich, ditch the bread altogether, and turn your BLT into a delicious salad, for breakfast no less? 

You can, and with the addition of a boiled egg and a bright, zesty salad dressing, you can totally revamp the popular lunchtime favorite into a light, nutritious breakfast dish with the same refreshing taste as its bread-based originator. Swap out the traditional iceberg lettuce commonly featured in the sandwich for a more tasty, robust variety (or a few, for layered textures), and you can get your day started with a light variation on the popular sandwich that will change the way you look at your first meal of the day for good. 

A great BLT breakfast salad begins with determining which lettuce to use as the base. When creating a BLT sandwich, the best choice of lettuce is crunchy, with large leaves and light flavor to complement the main ingredients and keep your toppings inside, which is why iceberg or romaine lettuce is typically the standard. But revamping the sandwich into a salad allows for greater room to experiment with lettuce options with varying tastes and textures, from refreshing iceberg to the bitter, peppery-tasting arugula, to the diverse mix in a 50/50 or spring mix. Still, romaine definitely has its merits. With its crisp, dark green leaves with mild flavor and a satisfying chew, its versatility makes for a great base for a variety of salad toppings. But for a more flavorful, nutritionally sound option, you might want to consider spinach. Spinach and bacon have become quite the ubiquitous flavor combination, with spinach's subtly earthy flavor pairing beautifully with the most salt-forward, smoky taste of the bacon for a balanced BLT partnership. 

Whichever lettuce you choose, creating your breakfast salad is easy — you'll simply layer your salad leaves with your other ingredients, and spread your tomato and crumbled bacon on top. But what gives this salad that fun, savory, breakfasty element is adding a boiled, fried, or poached egg on top. The egg will add richness and creaminess (not to mention an extra dose of protein), that will pair well with the crispness of your bacon.

Essential to making a great BLT breakfast salad is choosing the right dressing to enhance your ingredients without competing with the flavors. For a salty, creamy, savory addition to the overall flavor profile, look no further than blue cheese. In dressing form, its tangy, pungent flavor will accentuate the sweetness of your fresh tomatoes and enhance the smoky flavor of your bacon for a taste reminiscent of a classic chopped salad. But if thick, creamy dressing isn't your style, feel free to add some blue cheese crumbles atop your salad instead — the crumbles also make a delicious pairing for the bacon and tomatoes while offering small, delicious pockets of saltiness that leave a creamy after-bite. If you go the crumbles route, eight tablespoons should be efficient. Alternatively, for a less creamy option, feel free to add a lemon vinaigrette. The lemon will brighten your other flavors, allowing your BLT salad to offer a summery punch of flavor and a salad so good you might forget about the sandwich altogether.