Smoky Southwest Superfoods Salad
I developed this salad for the newsletter for the amazing ladies at Swell Studio Pilates. Swell is an awesome reformer pilates studio, offering challenging (but manageable) group or private classes that make a huge difference in your body in a short period of time. It’s fun, upbeat, and everyone is so nice! I really don’t like exercising that much, so I’m happy to have found an exercise program that I love. I urge anyone to try it!
Ok, back to the food- I love this salad because it takes advantage of the bountiful produce available locally right now. It’s also hearty enough to be a complete meal for anyone, even for dinner, especially if you add a little lean protein like chicken or fish. Nobody wants to eat a salad unless it’s satisfying and this light yet creamy dressing makes these super greens irresistible! Add all these super toppings and you’re ready to go. If there’s something you don’t like, leave it out, and if you want to add something, throw it in. You can customize this salad entirely to your own tastes.
40 min + chilling time for pickled onions
8 side servings or 4 main course servings
Dressing:
- ¼ cup sour cream
- juice and zest of 1 lime
- ¼ t chipotle chile powder
- ¼ t dried oregano
- ¼ t coriander
- ¼ t turmeric
- ¼ t cumin
- ¼ t onion powder
- ¼ t garlic powder
- ½ jalapeño, minced (leave this out or remove seeds if you don’t like your food as spicy!)
- pinch of kosher salt
Salad:
- 6 cups super greens
- 2 roasted poblanos, peeled, seeded, and diced (can also leave out for less heat or served raw to save time)
- 1 tomato, seeded and diced
- 1 green tomato, seeded and diced
- 1 avocado, diced
- ¼ cup pepitas
- 2 ears corn, husked and kernels cut off the cob
- ½ cup black beans, drained and rinsed if not organic
- ¼ cup pickled red onion (omit or serve raw to save time)
- ½ cup queso fresco, crumbled
- maldon or sea salt, to taste
- Grilled chicken or fish (optional)
*See below for instructions on roasting peppers and pickling onions.
For dressing:
Whisk all ingredients in a bowl and set aside while you prepare the salad.
For salad:
Combine greens and vegetables in a large bowl.
Toss with dressing to taste (I use about half to dress lightly).
Save the rest of the dressing for another use.
Toss salad gently and season with salt.
Enjoy!
To roast the peppers:
Either grill the peppers over high heat, or broil, until blackened all over.
Place in a ziplock bag for 10 minutes to steam.
Now the skin should easily peel off!
Don’t worry about whatever skin doesn’t want to come off.
Now you can seed and dice as you would a regular bell pepper.
Just be sure not to rinse under water; You don’t want to wash off the tasty oils.
To pickle the onions:
Slice a red onion thinly.
Bring 4 T red wine vinegar, 2 cups water and 1 t salt to a boil in a small saucepan.
Pour over sliced onion.
Chill completely before serving.