Bacon Salad

An extremely hearty and filling warm salad with Brussels sprouts, beets, kale, and smoky, salty bacon! Look for nitrate-free bacon, preferably from a local processor. (This is easy to find in Iowa, where I live, but there are more and more brands producing high-quality nitrate-free bacon, so it is more widely available than ever before.)

Makes 1 serving
1 serving = 4 Wahls veg/fruit cups

1 bunch curly or lacinato kale
1 or 2 bacon slices
½ cup thinly sliced Brussels sprouts
½ cup grated or sliced raw carrots
2 tablespoons Balsamic Vinaigrette (below)
¼ cup grated raw beets

TO MAKE

Cut the kale leaves from the thick stems and save the stems for another use. Roll up the leaves and thinly slice them crosswise. Steam them using a steamer basket and a sauce pan, or cook in a skillet with 1 tablespoon of water, and set them aside to cool. Alternatively, you can massage them with ¼ cup apple cider vinegar or lime juice and then let them sit for 30 minutes to an hour. (Both steaming and massaging with acid reduce the natural bitterness in kale.) This should yield approximately 3 cups of chopped kale leaves. Meanwhile, cook 1 or 2 slices of bacon on low for 10 to 12 minutes until desired level of crispness. Remove the bacon from the pan, and drain on paper towels. Add the Brussels sprouts and carrots to the bacon grease and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until tender. Put the kale into a large bowl and drizzle with the dressing. Add the Brussels sprouts–carrot mixture and beets. Toss everything to coat. Crumble the bacon over the top of the salad.

Variation: For a meatier salad, you can add ½ cup cubed ham or Canadian bacon to the cooked vegetable mixture in the last minute of cooking, just to warm it up.

Variation for Wahls Diet and Wahls Paleo: Add 2 tablespoons cooked or canned rinsed chickpeas to this salad.

Balsamic Vinaigrette

Makes 6 Servings

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon minced garlic
½ teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

TO MAKE

Put all the ingredients in a glass jar or bottle and shake to combine, or whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl until well combined. Shake or whisk again before each use. Store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

About Dr. Wahls

Dr. Terry Wahls is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Iowa where she conducts clinical trials. She is also a patient with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, which confined her to a tilt-recline wheelchair for four years. Dr. Wahls restored her health using a diet and lifestyle program she designed specifically for her brain and now pedals her bike to work each day. She is the author of The Wahls Protocol: How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine, The Wahls Protocol: A Radical New Way to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions Using Paleo Principles(paperback), and the cookbook The Wahls Protocol Cooking for Life: The Revolutionary Modern Paleo Plan to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions.