A cookbook called “Everything Tastes Better with Bacon” intrigues me but I dare not buy it for fear that I’d start eating bacon at every meal. It’s one of my favorite foods, but now I’m on a quest to slim down my favorite recipes for bacon.

A couple of summers ago my brother-in-law Umit introduced me to turkey bacon during our annual family reunion in The Berkshires. It was just okay, something to more or less pacify my cravings, but nothing more. And then -- ureka! -- I discovered some really wonderful turkey bacon at Whole Foods made by Applegate Farms.

With the last of the heirloom tomatoes ripening now in the cooler parts of the country, Alicia and I decided to make over one of our favorite bacon dishes: The simple, sublime – BLT sandwich. We headed to the test kitchen with a mission – make a bacon-lettuce-tomato combo that’s light, yet just as wonderful as you’d expect. And that’s just what emerged!

The secret wasn’t hard to guess – good-old turkey bacon. If you can find it, use a “gourmet” quality turkey bacon (it costs more, too, unfortunately, but in this case it’s well worth it). What we ended up with was a low-fat sandwich that has only 231 calories.

While we were experimenting, our lettuce and bread got elevated to a higher plane as well. The tart, fresh flavor of arugula holds it own with the other assertive ingredients in this sandwich, and five-grain bread tastes great and gives an extra jolt of fiber, too.

Give this sandwich a try and let us know what you think! Have you got any other recipes you like to make with turkey bacon? We’d love to hear about them in the comments section following this post.