Blackened smoked pork belly, sweet corn, fresh tomato, shaved red onion, crispy cornbread croutons, and buttermilk chive dressing.
I admit this is not the healthiest salad out there, with its crispy pork belly, creamy buttermilk dressing, and fat fried cornbread croutons. But.. It is delicious and has lots of veggies to balance out the fat.
This salad utilizes a portion of the blackened smoked pork belly from the previous post. The belly is a major flavor component of this salad, but you may not want to smoke a pork belly just to eat a salad. So, instead, chop up a pound of bacon and mix with 1-2 teaspoons of the spice mix from the belly recipe. Then, follow the cooking instructions from this recipe.
The cornbread croutons are another major flavor component of this salad. The recipe for the cornbread is scaled-down and uses an annoying 1/2 egg. If you would rather not deal with 1/2 an egg, I suggest making a larger pan of cornbread. Quadrupling the recipe and increasing the cooking time to 30-45 minutes will make a regular size cast iron pan of bread.
The buttermilk dressing recipe makes six ounces. This will probably be more than you need for two salads. The flavor of the dressing is ranch-esque and any leftover can be used similarly.
Pork Belly Salad with Cornbread Croutons
Ingredients
Cornbread
- 1/4 cup 1 tbsp cornmeal
- 3 tbsp flour
- 1/2 egg
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1 tbsp butter melted
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp sugar
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
Salad
- 4 cups salad greens or spinach
- 16 pieces blackened pork belly 1 inch slices
- 1 cup corn kernels
- 1 tomato seeded and julienne
- 1/4 red onion shaved
Buttermilk Chive Dressing
- 1/4 cup greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1 1/2 tbsp chives chopped
- 1/8 tsp pepper
Instructions
Cornbread
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients together and mix in the wet ingredients. Pour into a greased bread pan. Bake for 12 minutes. Cool and cut into 16 squares.
Salad
- Heat a skillet over medium heat. Cook the pork belly until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Toss the cornbread cubes in the pan with the rendered fat. Cook the croutons until browned. Remove from the pan. Add 1 tsp of oil and cook the corn until tender. Remove from the pan and cool.
- Divide the greens between two plates. Top with pork, corn, red onion, tomatoes, and croutons. Drizzle with dressing and serve.
Buttermilk Chive Dressing
- Combine all the ingredients and chill until ready to serve.
