BLT Butter Bean Salad
Top Chef winner Kelsey Barnard Clark is the owner of KBC, a restaurant and catering company in Dothan, Alabama. Since the year she got engaged, she has hosted an annual Mother’s Day brunch to celebrate all the matriarchs in her family. She sets the table with the nice china, polishes her Grandma’s silver and has flower arrangements piled on the kitchen counter, waiting to be gifted. Her Grandmother June and Devours’s (her husband’s) Mimi each played big roles in their lives and passed within a month of each other. On their last Mother’s Day brunch Kelsey was days away from giving birth to her first child and was in the middle of a move, surviving off a few mixing bowls, a skillet and a coffee machine. She could barely muster up the energy to cook a meal and just about pulled the plug on this annual gathering. Thankfully, her love for keeping traditions got the best of her. She focused on keeping it simple with crowd-pleasers she could whip up with her eyes closed: BLT Butter Bean Salad, Bee’s Fried Chicken and Banana Cream Pie.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups (14 oz./435 g) baby butter beans, fresh or frozen
- 10 thick-sliced applewood smoked bacon slices
- 3 cups (24 fl. oz./720 ml) chicken stock or broth
- 1 head Bibb or butter lettuce
- 3 heirloom tomatoes, cut into medium wedges
- 1/4 cup (1 oz./25 g) crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
- 1/2 cup (4 fl. oz./120 ml) finishing-quality olive oil
- 1/4 cup (2 fl. oz./60 ml) apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup (1/4 oz./5 g) chiffonade fresh basil
- 1/4 cup (1/4 oz./5 g) chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
In a medium sauce pot over medium heat, combine the beans, 1 slice of the bacon and the stock. Bring to a slow simmer and cook until tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Blanch by straining the beans and submerging them in ice-cold water until cool throughout, about 10 minutes, then drain and spread on paper towels to absorb excess liquid. Set aside.
In a skillet over medium-low heat, cook the remaining bacon slices, flipping halfway, until crisp on both sides, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the bacon, then roughly chop to a medium dice. Reserve the bacon fat.
Layer whole lettuce leaves across the bottom of a wide salad bowl or a medium platter with a lip. Top with the beans, tomatoes, cheese and then the bacon. Drizzle with the reserved bacon fat, olive oil and vinegar. Top with the basil, parsley, salt and pepper. Let sit for 10 to 15 minutes before serving, but no more. If making ahead, place the undressed salad in the refrigerator. Drizzle with the bacon fat, oil and vinegar just before serving. Serves 4 to 6.
Adapted from Southern Grit by Kelsey Barnard Clark (Chronicle Books, 2021).
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