BLT Salad with Crispy Chickpeas
plus Croutons & Creamy Red Wine Vinaigrette
- Wheat
- Milk
- Eggs
This twist on a BLT is welcome on our table any time at all! Bacon does double duty here: as the star of the salad, and providing the flavorful fat in which you’ll roast chickpeas to crispy perfection. Fresh lettuce, juicy grape tomatoes, and crunchy croutons are tossed in a quick homemade Dijon-oregano vinaigrette that ties it all together.
Ingredients
1 unit
Croutons
(Contains: Wheat, Milk)
4 ounce
Bacon
2 unit
Baby Lettuce
1 unit
Chickpeas
5 teaspoon
Red Wine Vinegar
4 ounce
Grape Tomatoes
2 tablespoon
Mayonnaise
(Contains: Eggs)
½ teaspoon
Dried Oregano
2 teaspoon
Dijon Mustard
Not included in your delivery
1 tablespoon (tbsp)
Olive Oil
½ teaspoon (tsp)
Sugar
teaspoon (tsp)
Salt
teaspoon (tsp)
Black Pepper
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
• Heat a large dry pan over medium- high heat. Add bacon* and cook, turning occasionally and adjusting heat if browning too fast, until crispy, 6-10 minutes. • Turn off heat; transfer bacon to a paper-towel-lined plate. Once cool enough to handle, roughly chop. Carefully discard all but 1 TBSP bacon fat (2 TBSP for 4 servings) from pan (you’ll use it to toast the chickpeas in Step 3).
• While bacon cooks, wash and dry produce. • Drain and rinse chickpeas; pat dry with paper towels. (TIP: Be sure chickpeas are thoroughly dried off to ensure even toasting!) Trim and discard root end of lettuce; separate leaves and cut into bite-size pieces. Halve tomatoes.
• Heat pan with reserved bacon fat over medium-high heat. (TIP: If your bacon didn’t yield enough fat, add a drizzle of oil to pan.) Once pan is hot, add chickpeas and cook, covered, shaking the pan occasionally, until lightly browned and crispy, 2-4 minutes. (Chickpeas will pop. Be careful!) Taste and season with salt and pepper if desired.
• Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together mustard, mayonnaise, vinegar, half the oregano, 1 TBSP olive oil, 1⁄2 tsp sugar, a pinch of salt, and pepper (all the oregano, 2 TBSP olive oil, and 1 tsp sugar for 4 servings).
• Once chickpeas are done, add lettuce, tomatoes, toasted chickpeas, and croutons (crushing them in the bag first) to bowl with vinaigrette. Toss to coat.
• Divide salad between bowls and top with bacon. Serve.
Bacon is fully cooked when internal temperature reaches 145°.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Dec 2025- Flavor: Many enjoyed the salad's variety, but some found the dressing bland; consider adding extra herbs or reducing vinegar for better balance.
- Ease of prep: Quick and easy to make, though some had trouble getting chickpeas crispy; try air frying or roasting them instead.
- Suggestions: Add grilled chicken for more protein 🍗. Use less lettuce and more toppings for better proportions.
- Leftovers: Avoid tossing entire salad with dressing; serve it separately to keep ingredients fresh for later.
Reviews from our home cooks
Love this salad. So fresh tasting and the bacon was great. Love frying the chickpeas in bacon grease. I could not get them crispy though.
Excellent! I made the chickpeas in the air fryer as wouldn't get crispy on the stove. I wasn't sure about the dressing, but it was so good
A bit of work to cook bacon and roast chickpeas, but flavor was very good.
Delicious light summer meal. Add an instruction that urges cooling the chickpeas before adding to lettuce
It was so tasty, and lots of romaine lettuce for each serving. I made my Bacon in the air fryer. That is the only thing I did different.
This was surprisingly good. We are a put ranch on everything kind of family but like trying new things. I used only half the vinegar. Much better
The recipe has you put the entire dressing on the salad and it makes it so you can't save any because the lettuce wilts. I would change the recipe to not toss the salad in the dressing and use it as preferred.
Too many chickpeas and not enough lettuce, tomatoes, or bacon. The ingredients were unproportioned: there was an excessive amount of chickpeas compared to the rest of the ingredients. The chickpeas were overboard and overpowered the other flavors in the recipe. The tomatoes were also unsatisfactory in freshness. They were not very firm or crisp. They seemed to be close to going bad: the tomato skin was wrinkled, and they were squishy in texture. They were so over-soft that it was incredibly difficult to cut them in halves--the knife wouldn't slice through them and would instead just smash them. Despite preparing the recipe the same day I received the Hello Fresh box, the tomatoes were already getting mushy and seemed like they were not very fresh at all.
Used this as a side salad in Addition to a ny strip steak we were having. Very tasty salad variation!
This was so easy and quick to make and a great summer salad, delicious!
