WHB - Watercress, Avocado, and Bacon Salad

Hey, did you know watercress can be considered an herb?? I didn't! I thought it was a lettuce, and I figured I was going to have to cheat my way through this weeks Weekend Herb Blogging, which I have been known to do on occasion. But no cheating this time. It is actually a member of the nasturtium family and it contains significant amounts of iron, calcium and folic acid. Greenlife has had the prettiest bunches of watercress lately and I bought some without any idea what to do with it. And has sometimes happens in the world, a wonderful little coincidence occurred. That night, I was watching one of my TIVO'd Tyler Florence shows and he did a watercress salad. Don't you love when something like that happens? Anyway, this salad contained watercress, avocado, and bacon! Hello! With bacon and avocado how could it not be great? I sauteed a chicken breast and served it on top of this to turn it into a main dish salad. Perfect! Except that I became impatient and didn't brown the chicken breast enough, so even though it was delish, it was not as attractive as I would have liked it, hence the picture of the salad without the chicken breast. If you want a quick, tasty, dinner salad, this is it! I've adapted it slightly from the original.

Watercress, Bacon, Avocado, and Chicken Salad
Serves 2

1 bunch watercress
1 avocado
3 slices bacon, diced
1 lemon
olive oil
kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Brown bacon until crispy. Remove and drain on paper towels. Pour off all but one tablespoon of the bacon fat. Salt and pepper chicken breast and brown over medium high heat for 2-3 minutes. Cover with a lid, reduce heat to medium and cook for 8 minutes. While chicken is cooking, divide watercress among plates. Dice and divide avocado evenly (or give yourself slightly more, you are the chef after all!). Juice 1 lemon and sprinkle over avocado and watercress. Salt and pepper salad, drizzle with olive oil, top with chicken breast and bacon (again, what I said about more avocado for the chef, holds even more true for bacon).

Eat this and marvel at sheer wonderfulness of this salad. It's unbelievably easy. And, like I said, this will be entry for this week's Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Susan at The Well-Seasoned Cook.