French Salad with Broad Beans, Bacon and Poached Egg

Happy Halloween! I have a great salad to tell you about today, but I have to warn you: some people might find it scary. Because, see, it involves poached eggs. And poaching eggs? That can be very scary indeed. If you don't know how to. And I, sadly, don't. So what to do? I used a gadget, of course.

I've already told you about Poach Pods, a great little invention by FusionBrands. And perfect for poaching eggs. It just makes it so easy! Well, I guess it's probably quite easy to do it the old-fashioned way too, but I don't know - I find it scary.

The salad though, that's not scary at all. It's just really, really good. And it'll serve two, as a light dinner or a hearty lunch. Using frozen broad beans are ok, but I would never use canned or dried. Much too mealy for my liking.

French Salad with Broad Beans, Bacon and Poached Egg
Serves 2

1 head of romaine lettuce
100 g bacon
3 slices day-old bread (preferrably sourdough)
500 g fresh broad beans (unpodded weight)
handful of cherry tomatoes
2 eggs
1/2-1 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tsp red wine vinegar
1-2 tsp dijon mustard
flaky sea salt

Dice the bacon and fry until crispy. Remove from pan, and place on a piece of paper towel to de-grease. Don't wipe out the pan! Cut the bread into small dice and fry in the bacon drippings until golden and crispy. Remove to a plate and let the croutons cool.

Pod the broad beans and boil them for three minutes. Then peel off the white, thick membrane - unless they're very tiny. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half.

Poach the eggs, or if this is just too scary, just boil it. You'll be fine.

Whisk oil, red wine vinegar, mustard and sea salt together. Clean the romaine lettuce and arrange on a platter. Scatter the other ingredients on top, finish with the egg, and drizzle the dressing to finish.

Recipe in Swedish:
Fransk sallad med bondbönor & bacon