Southwest Salad with Creamy Avocado Salsa Dressing

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I found this salad on Pinterest, and it came originally from carlsbadcravings.com, which I quite like. The salad itself was fantastic—it gets a 7.8. I didn’t get a picture of the dressing, but it was fabulous as well. I added mango and red onion, which I think is essential, and paired with some fruit (or chicken or something, this is a great summer meal. I noted my other changes below.

Southwest Salad with Creamy Avocado Salsa Dressing

Author: Jen@CarlsbadCravings.com

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

  • Southwest Salad
  • 1 head romaine lettuce, chopped
  • fresh corn kernels from 1 ear of sweet corn I used frozen corn and it was fine
  • 1 red bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half
  • 1 (15 oz.) can black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1/3 cup roasted and salted pepitas (may sub. sunflower seeds) we used sunflower seeds
  • 1/2 cup grated pepper jack cheese, or more to taste we cubed out cheese and I like it better in this shape
  • Tortilla Strips for Salads (I like Fresh Gourmet Santa Fe Style) We used tortilla chips, but I think the strips would make it even better
  • Creamy Avocado Salsa Dressing
  • 1 small avocado, peeled and sliced
  • 1 small jalapeno, seeded, deveined and roughly chopped (optional) We added about 1/2 a pepper
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled
  • 1/4 cup loosely packed cilantro
  • 1/4 cup sour cream (may sub.plain Greek yogurt) I used sour cream
  • 1/4 cup smooth salsa (medium for more of a kick) I made homemade salsa and just used the food processor with a couple of Tbs. left in it
  • 1/4 cup milk I had to add almost 1/2 cup to thin it out
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar* I left this out
  • juice from 1 lime
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon cumin
  • 1/8 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon smoked paprika (optional) I used a few shakes
  • hot sauce to taste (optional) I didn’t use this

Instructions

  1. Add all of the Creamy Avocado Salad Dressing ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth, scraping the sides down as needed. Add hot sauce and additional salt and pepper to taste. Add additional milk to thin to desired consistency if needed. Chilli in the refrigerator, time permitting.
  2. Add salad ingredients to a large bowl except for the tortilla strips and toss to combine.
  3. Toss salad with desired amount of dressing (there will probably be some left over) or drizzle dressing over individual servings if not eating all of the salad immediately.
  4. Garnish salad with tortilla strips and freshly cracked salt and pepper.

Mel’s Recipe Source

http://www.carlsbadcravings.com/southwest-salad-creamy-avocado-salsa-dressing/

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