I didn't say how good the last salad was. It was good, but this was better. I did a few more substitutions, but overall I liked what was in this salad more. I had a beautiful, sweet tomato and a whole bunch of corn kernels. I'm addicted to sweet, I know, but it's funny that my attraction to this salad over the last is the sweetness, but my complaint with that one was that the dressing was too sweet. There's no pleasing me (unless you make your own ketchup. In which case you can consider yourself engaged).This salad calls for tortilla chips, cheddar cheese and sour cream. With a whopping 36 grams of fat I was reminded of an episode of the horrible show by the authors of "LooneySpoons" and "Eat Shrink and Be Merry", two decent low-fat cookbooks. The books got them a TV show that is nowhere near as good as the books. Anyway, I was subjected to this episode on a flight once. I mean, I could have turned it off, but it was so short that by the time I realized how bad it was it was kind of too late.
The show concept is that these two women go to different restaurants and re-create a low-fat version of a high-fat dish, then serve it to a bunch of people and have a blind taste test. Often their version doesn't win. Fat is flavour and all...Probably the TV people should have done their research before creating their show, like eaten something. There's nothing wrong with their recipes (besides the use of fat-free versions of things like store-bought mayo and cream cheese...blasphemies of potentially delicious things) but it's hard to beat 36 grams of fatty cheddar, oil and sour cream if you like that sort of thing. It takes some time to re-adjust your taste buds.
So this episode I saw was creating a low-fat taco salad. They used lean ground beef and fat-free sour cream along with baked tortilla chips. The thing is, these are still three things that I don't eat. I didn't want any meat involved in my salad, and I decided to use kefir to replace the sour cream. It's nowhere near as thick, but it would have a good tang from the fermentation (kefir is like yogurt but has more good bacteria that are helpful for digestion. This is key when you're lactose-intolerant. You can find a lot of different variety from one brand to another, just like yogurt. My all-time favourite is Pinehedge Farms, available in Ontario and Quebec (maybe other places??). It's a family-run farm, bio-dynamic and very, very eco-conscious. You can even return the bottles and get back a $1 deposit. I have way too many yogurt plastic containers already. This is all well and good, but I wouldn't love it except that it's absolutely the best tasting yogurt and kefir I've ever had. It's kind of sweet and you get this layer of milk fat at the top when you open it that is so sinfully creamy...
I just skipped the tortilla chips because I was carrying this salad to a picnic and they'd get soft and mushy, and really I didn't want to make that kind of salad anyway. The funny thing is it says to use romaine lettuce and I always think this kind of dressing goes better with iceberg for the crunch, even if there's no nutritional value. It's fine with romaine, but becomes a very different salad. You also can't pre-mix the lettuce leaves for the same reasons as the tortillas - they get soggy. Or just skip the lettuce leaves since it works fine as a bean salad too.
Whew! Made it! Enjoy:
1 red onion or 3 shallots, diced
3-5 large delicious tomatoes, diced
2 bell peppers (I did a tri-colour pepper combination the equivalent of 2 peppers. The lefover I used for the other chickpea salad. Making these salads together is great because they call for so many of the same ingredients that you can kill two birds with one stone. These are both vegetarian recipes, though, so be careful where you throw your stones).
2 cups cooked chickpeas (you can use black beans for a more traditional texicali salad, but I'd cooked all my fresh chickpeas for the other salad so that's what I used. If you use dried black beans soak them the same way (overnight or the 1 hour quick-soak method) and then boil them with a bunch of water (3 times as much water as beans by volume) for (just!) 35 minutes.
2 cups kernel corn (the recipe says canned, but I used frozen and just stuck it in the microwave for 2 minutes with a few tablespoons of water to get it all unfrozen (it's already cooked) and remove the starch that's applied to maintain the texture for freezing. Gross, huh? Oh the many uses of processed cornstarch in the great North American corn industry...You can also boil the kernels to unfreeze them and un-cornstarch them. Just drain them and let them dry off before adding them to the salad.
1 head of lettuce (romaine is recommended, but I like something with crunch), washed and dried
Dressing:
1/3 cup fresh cilantro (I used parsley because it's cilantro for wimps, so a fine replacement, not that I'm a wimp, and because it's what I had. I couldn't find any decent cilantro at the market. What I did find didn't have any smell and an herb without aroma is just something green and grassy)
1/2 lime juice (finally, some punch! Use fresh if you can. I only needed three limes and I juiced them by hand. If you have a juicer you are lucky. Otherwise, be sure to strain the pulp and seeds that thought they were being saved from their rind-y, pith-y existence)
3 tbsp olive oil (the recipe calls for 1/2 a cup, but that's ridiculous. No, really. Wait because I'll explain with the next ingredient)
1/2 cup kefir or tangy yogurt or sour cream (full fat is better for thickness, but use what you like. It is a fair bit. The upside of a runny kefir or yogurt is that you'll use less dressing as it won't really stick to the lettuce leaves or chickpeas. Okay, the justification for the skimping on oil that you've been waiting for: when yogurt is used in a dressing you can reduce the amount of oil necessary without diluting the flavour. Oil is pretty bland, so when you combine it with and equal amount of lime juice like above, you're not going to get a whole lot of the olive flavour anyway, so using that much is a waste. That's why I say 3 tbsp, because the yogurt adds the liquid the dressing needs without squishing the flavour of the lime. You need some oil or the yogurt and lime are still too overwhelmed by each other, but you really don't need a half a cup. Geez...)
1 tsp sugar (you may or may not need this. If your yogurt is naturally sweet because it's higher in fat - the fat-free ones tend to be more bitter and the thick Greek ones also may need to be sweetened - you won't need much of this, if any. So taste before you add, once the rest of the dressing is mixed, and make an educated decision.
1/2 salt (to taste)
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper (again, to taste)
Directions:
Combine the chopped shallots, tomatoes, bell peppers, cooked chickpeas (or beans), and defrosted, drained corn kernels in a large bowl. Stir to mix.
Clean the lettuce, dry, and place in another large bowl. Then top the lettuce with the bean mixture.
In a blender combine the dressing ingredients and blend. I thought it was a bit watery, and this was from the runny kefir, so next time I may go for the Damafro fresh probiotic cheese I sometimes use or the junky "Greek-style" fat-free, super-thick yogurt. There is no non-fat-free version, which makes me very upset. Pour the blended mixture over the beans and stir to combine.
You can also not place the bean mixture on the bed of lettuce, and just add the dressing directly to it. That way you can let it sit in the fridge to let the flavours combine before pouring it over the lettuce. Once you've added the mixture to the lettuce your time is short. The lettuce will wilt and get soggy. I recommend NOT adding the dressing or bean mixture to all the lettuce unless you're at a potluck or serving this for a large group of people right away. Then if there are leftovers you won't be eating soggy leftovers, or heaven forbid, throwing out otherwise beautiful salad.
Oh I love corn and good tomatoes. I miss my tomato seedling so very much...
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