This salad comes to the rescue when you want to serve something festive without long preparation. The basis here is very simple: smoked quail eggs, cherry tomatoes, salad mix and thin slices of dried duck or bacon. It is the smoked eggs that give the dish a distinct taste, so no additional complex ingredients are needed. Honey-mustard sauce brings everything together, and cherries add freshness and light acidity. The result is a neat salad for a festive table, a buffet or a quick dinner, when you need to look impressive without too much trouble.
What you will need
- gray-dried duck using hamon or bacon technology – 25 g
- Molodecki smoked quail eggs – 10 pcs.
- cherry tomatoes – 10 pcs.
- salad mix – 100 g
- honey-mustard sauce – 2 tsp. spoons
- salt – to taste
If you don’t have dried duck, you can take bacon, ham or thinly sliced bacon without additional heat treatment. The main thing is that the meat component is salty and has a rich taste. Then the salad will not be fresh even with a minimal amount of dressing.
Preparation of ingredients
First prepare everything that does not need to wait. Peel the quail eggs and cut them in half. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half as well. Wash the salad mix, if necessary, and dry well so that the leaves do not give off excess moisture. If the leaves are large, tear them with your hands into convenient pieces. Cut the meat into thin strips or small plates so that it is convenient to spread it all over the plate.
It is at this stage that you should try the meat and sauce. If bacon or duck is already salty enough, it is almost not necessary to salt the salad separately. It is better to add salt at the very end, when all the components have already been assembled.
How to assemble a salad
Place the salad mix on a large flat plate or dish. Do not press the leaves so that the salad remains voluminous and light. Spread slices of dried duck or bacon on top. Then add halves of smoked quail eggs and cherry tomatoes, trying to spread them evenly so that each serving has a balance of salty, juicy and fresh.
Pour the salad with honey-mustard sauce in a thin stream. It is most convenient to do this with a spoon: so the dressing will lie evenly and not overload the leaves. After that, try one piece and only add a pinch of salt if necessary. It is better to mix such a salad already on the table or not to mix it at all if you want to keep a neat presentation.
Helpful submission tips
It is best to serve the dish immediately after assembly, while the leaves are crispy and the sauce has not softened them. If you prepare the salad in advance, just keep all the ingredients separate and assemble the dish 5 minutes before serving. For a festive table, you can lay out the ingredients on a wide dish in layers, and for portioned serving – divide them into two or three plates.
The salad goes well with dried baguette, grisini or soft white bread. If you want to make the dish even more expressive, add a few drops of sauce to the plate before serving, but do not change the main proportion of the ingredients. In this way, you will preserve the original nature of the recipe and get a truly festive, but very simple dish.