Warm Fiddlehead Salad with Pickled Red Onions, Bacon & Feta

This recipe was inspired by my recent trip to Island Lake Lodge for their annual Untamed Kootenay’s event. We got to go into the forest with their chef and forage fiddleheads. It was a pretty unique experience for me since I am a city girl through and through. If you ever get a chance to go check the event out I highly recommend it! You can find more information about it in my blog post here. If you’ve never had fiddleheads before, I would compare them to asparagus. They are delicate and a real treat!

Warm Fiddlehead Salad with Pickled Red Onions, Bacon & Feta

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes
Yield: 4 servings (as a side salad)

INGREDIENTS

For the Salad

• 2 cups fiddleheads, brown ends trimmed

• 4 strips bacon *Reserve a splash of bacon fat for the dressing

• ¼ cup pickled red onions

• ¼ cup crumbled feta cheese

For the Dressing

• Juice of ½ a lemon

• 1 tbsp. grainy mustard

• 2 tsp. honey

• Splash bacon fat

• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

• Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

While you wait for the water to come to a boil, cook the bacon over medium heat in a large fry pan until crispy. Put a splash of the bacon fat in a medium sized mixing bowl and reserve enough bacon fat to coat the pan, discarding the rest. Once the water is boiling, blanch the fiddleheads for 4 minutes. Place the fry pan with the reserved bacon fat over medium-high heat, drain the fiddleheads, and add to the pan. Sauté for 5 minutes, stirring often.

While the fiddleheads are sautéing, add all of the remaining ingredients “for the dressing” in the mixing bowl with the splash of bacon fat, and whisk until well combined.

To serve, toss the warm fiddleheads in the salad dressing. Top with pickled red onions, crumbled bacon and feta cheese.

Fiddleheads I foraged

Fiddleheads in the forest (these have grown too much and are no longer very good for harvesting)