I haven’t been cooking or trying new recipes for some time and needed to get myself back in swing of trying new things and having fun in the kitchen. I have decided that over the course of the next few months I will try 27 new recipes and post the results as I work through them. This should be fun and should also broaden my kitchen repertoire which has narrowed to easy and predictable over the last year.
I love to look at Pinteret for inspiration in the kitchen. There are so many good things just waiting to be discovered. Also on my Facebook wall I am bombarded (in a good way) with great recipes from 12 Tomatoes and Tasty and they make me want to cook or bake. The approach I am taking though is to try to make healthy and fresh foods that will serve as a great foundation to my diet so I have started with a Chopped Salad. I’m calling it Chopped Salad California Style because of the avocado lime dressing which pulls the salad ingredients together very nicely.
The salad itself is comprised of chopped red and green bell peppers, chopped red onion, chopped scallions, cooked corn, black beans, chopped tomatoes, and chopped avocado. You can use approximate amounts and even add other veggies that are in season. To serve 4 as a side dish, or 2 as a main dish, I used 1/2 cup of the pepper, tomatoes, black beans, and corn, 1/4 cup of red onion, 2 tablespoons of the scallions, and 1/4 to 1/2 avocado.
The dressing was a mix of 1/2 cup avocado, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/6 cup lime juice, 1/8 tsp. cumin, and salt and pepper to taste.
The finished salad was not only tasty and filling, it was pretty to look at too. The dressing is the secret to pulling it all together. I may experiment in the future to add a little less lime juice and a litte more cumin to the salad dressing. If I do I’ll post the updates here.
Spoon + Bowl + Pan + Love 