It was so hot in Southern California a few days ago and when I say hot, I mean it’s hot for this time of year. It should be in the lower 70s with plenty of gray mornings. Instead today I was waking up with the sun beating down on me at 8 am and temperatures that skyrocketed to 85 degrees by early afternoon.
I refuse to turn on my air conditioner until at least July which means that my place, three floors up in a brick building that seems to absorb heat with Eastern-facing windows that line almost the entirety of my unit, is hot. And when the air around me is hot and especially when my place is hot, I don’t really feel like cooking.
Which is fine because it just so happens that I had some nice fresh arugula and tomato on hand that I planned to use to make sandwiches. I also had some leftover homemade croutons, blue cheese crumbles and creamy blue cheese vinaigrette which meant I could throw a nice cool salad together rather effortlessly made completely with ingredients I already had lying around.
This salad is meant to be blue-cheese centric. I know blue cheese is polarizing but I’m on the same end of the spectrum as those who adore blue cheese so this salad was right up my alley. While I originally whipped up this salad to use up leftovers, it quickly became a salad favorite. I bought a pound of arugula and four large tomatoes so I could continue eating this salad all week!
If you’ve never tried making your own croutons, you really ought to try it at least once. They are so easy to make, a great way to use up leftover bread and they really jazz up a salad.
ingredients.
- 7 oz arugula
- 1 large tomato on the vine, washed and thickly sliced
- 1 c. croutons (use homemade if you can!)
- ¼ to ½ c. blue cheese crumbles
- ¼ to ½ c. creamy blue cheese vinaigrette
- salt and pepper, to taste
directions.
- In a large ziplock bag or Tupperware container you can seal, add the arugula, croutons and dressing. Shake to distribute the dressing evenly across the leaves and croutons. Fan the dressed lettuce across a long plate.
- Spread tomatoes across the lettuce and top with salt and pepper to taste and blue cheese crumbles.
This recipe serves 1 to 4 depending on appetite and how you’re serving it.
I have approximations listed next to the ingredients because I truly believe a “good” salad means something to different to everyone. Some people love their lettuce swimming in dressing; others like lettuce to be more dry or even on the side. Heck when I was a kid I ate salads sans dressing!
Recipe rating:
Food Snob 