Southwest Fiesta Salad

I guess the trend in the food blogging world is to post sweet things on Friday.  I haven't caught on to that yet.  Unless we are saying sweet-as in awesome, because then this is pretty sweet.  

We have this salad quite often and have had a few different variations so it's pretty versatile.  You can add pretty much

whichever of the ingredients you like and I have a few dressing options for you, but the homemade one is my favorite.    In a pinch, you can mix Ranch and BBQ sauce to taste, about equal parts of each, and use that as dressing.  Our kids just use Ranch.  You can also use a mixture of salsa and sour cream (to your liking).  I really might be able to get away with just some lime juice on this salad since I like the ingredients so much.  Like I said, the homemade dressing is the best, in my opinion, and it's not so unhealthy either (the light sour cream being the only offender).  But it's also the most time consuming part of the salad.  (Unless you are boiling your beans instead of using canned.)  Some crushed tortilla chips or Fritos would also be delicious, but if you are worried about healthy, skip them, it's delicious without them too.

Southwest Fiesta Salad

Source:  My pretty little head

Salad

Lettuce of your choice, we used a Spring Mix

1 15 oz can or 1 1/2 cups black beans

1 1/2 cups corn (I used frozen and just defrosted it)

1-2 tomatoes, diced

1 avocado, pitted and diced

1/3 cup red onion, diced

6-8 chicken tenderloins, cooked and diced

3-4 T cilantro, chopped (optional)

Dressing

1 T olive oil

2 med tomatoes

1/2 green pepper

1/2 Chipotle pepper in Adobo*

1/2 tsp cumin

1 T honey

juice of 1 lime (or more to taste)

1/2 tsp minced garlic

1/2 cup light sour cream or greek yogurt

salt and pepper to taste

FOR DRESSING:  Preheat oven to 400, quarter tomatoes and toss tomatoes and green pepper in olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour into a baking pan and bake for about 20 minutes, until tomatoes are puffed and browned and green pepper is browned.  Remove from oven and cool.  In a food processor or blender, combine tomatoes, green pepper, chipotle pepper and process until smooth.  Add garlic, cumin, honey and lime juice and blend.  Add sour cream and process until smooth.  Taste and add salt and pepper or lime juice if needed.

FOR SALAD:  Arranged desired ingredients on a plate (we let everyone pick their own ingredients for their salad) and drizzle with dressing.  Sprinkle with cilantro, if desired.  Serves 4-6

*I had these chipotle chili peppers from a different recipe, that we didn't love, so I had some to use up.  I found them in the international isle by the other canned peppers.  I only used half of one because, as I have mentioned, I am a sissy when it comes to heat.  I still added some extra sour cream to my salad because it was a bit hot for me; so add to your liking, but be careful, those things are NO JOKE!  You could probably also substitute them out for some red pepper flakes or chipotle seasoning or something.








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