Bacon Avocado White Bean Salad

This rich and delicious bacon avocado salad is the salad to convert salad haters. It's full of delicious flavor from the bacon and avocado, plus a variety of textures from the white beans and tomatoes. 

Recipe: $3.35 | Per Serving: $0.84 | Yield: 4

This Bacon-Avocado Salad is basically a Just the Good Stuff kind of salad. (Greens are optional.) 

You're getting salty-umami flavor from the bacon, rich creaminess from the avocado, fresh summer tomatoes, and of course, a punchy mustard dressing to tie it all together. Bacon and avocado are a match made in heaven and we're just here to enjoy the party!

Yes, I'm a self-proclaimed bacon hater, and there's bacon in my salad. I promise I don't actually hate it anymore. I don't love it, but I have a few places where I like to put it. Loaded Cauliflower Casserole, for one. And the occasional pasta dish.

You can warm this up or eat it cold. Either way, you'll be the happiest kid in the lunchroom!

Other delicious bacon recipes:

• Cream-free Creamy Italian White Beans and Bacon
• This Creamy Celery Soup with Bacon (Paleo)
• Roasted Butternut Squash, Bacon, & Kale Pasta
• Loaded Cauliflower Casserole with Swiss Chard and Bacon
• One of my favorite breakfasts: Bacon Quinoa Breakfast Bowl with Roasted Veggies
• And this fall pizza: Apple Bacon Pizza with Pumpkin Sauce

This recipe makes about 2-4 servings, largely depending on whether you like to add a lot of salad greens, and if you're eating it alone or with something else. I would say if it is the only think you're eating, it's 2 servings, but if it is a side dish or paired with lots of other goodies (like above) it will serve 4!

The first time we made this, Zac & I each ate a serving for a light lunch, and shared the last bit for lunch another day with Turkey Lentil Burgers.

I HIGHLY recommend this salad! It's such a perfect light meal for the January blues. I've personally been binging on Japanese snacks lately, since we're leaving Japan soon, so this lunch provides balance. I hope you make it!

Is Bacon Good For You?

Well, isn't that a question for the ages? We could spend a lot of time on this one, but I'll just hit three key areas.

Saturated Fat

We've long been complaining about saturated fat in this country, but most of those judgments were based on ONE poorly done study.

Realistically, more recent research has found that saturated fat in and of itself is definitely not explicitly bad for you. What matters more is the quality of the fat. CAFOs = very unhealthy fat. Small farms with pastured, grass-fed animals = better fat!

With today's data, we see saturated fat, as a neutral fat. It is not in the esteemed category of "healthy" fats (like avocado, olive oil, wild salmon), but isn't doing nearly as much damage as once thought.

(Though individual considerations should be taken into account.)

Nitrates / Processed Meats

The second factor, is that it is cured and processed with nitrates. These can cause some damage in the digestive tract. The WHO consistently marks all processed meats as carcinogens. However, types of processed meats, volume of consumption, or the overall context of the diet is not considered.

That means all of this information is based on population-size studies, usually of a more observational and correlation type. (Which is true for LOTS of nutritional data we have.)

Finally, the Impacts of Restriction

It may be mentally unhealthy for you to restrict bacon, so in that case, the restriction of bacon may be more unhealthy for you, as an individual, than the bacon itself. We don't always talk about the physical implications of being mentally restricted from a food. In some cases, the stress and shame around the food can be more detrimental than the food itself.

So, I, as a nutritionist, cannot flat out deem bacon as "healthy" but cannot call it "unhealthy" either. In this case, it is all a matter of moderation and of course, preference.

Plus, we know that humans have been consuming large amounts of unprocessed fats for much of our lives, so high quality animal fats can be a great part of a balanced diet.

And, just to be clear, bacon is certainly not the best option for fat or protein - the jury's still out on all the nitrates and nitrites - but as for my professional opinion, I feel completely comfortable including it in my diet!

Check out this post by Precision Nutrition for more information on healthy fats.

Anti-Inflammatory Foods + Moderation

In my book, I find that keeping most foods in your diet in moderation, is a great idea.

If you're buying regular conventional bacon from the grocery store, you're going to get all the toxins and oxidation that goes along with conventionally raised meat in the USA.

BUT if your overall diet is full of lots of variety and colorful vegetables, the potential negative impacts of bacon a few times will be well mitigated by all those phytonutrients!

If you can afford higher quality bacon from well raised pigs, that's great too. High quality bacon from small farms, or from a grass-fed meat subscription service like Moink, are good options if you can afford them. (That link to Moink (affiliate link) gets you $20 off your first order!)

And, if you're looking for more information on beans - are they healthy, are they inflammatory, and how to cook them to make them easily digestible - stay tuned for an update coming soon!

Note: Feel free to add herbs like cilantro or basil, and you can substitute the white beans for garbanzo beans if you prefer! We were also making Jalapeño Salsa Verde Soup, so we had plenty of white beans.

Dietary Substitutions and Modifications for Bacon Avocado White Bean Salad!

• For Paleo: Try substituting the white beans for slow-roasted cauliflower or shredded chicken.
• For Vegetarian: Skip the bacon and you're in the clear! (Try Shiitake Bacon by Serious Eats.)

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