Mexican Restaurant Salad

Name: Mexican Restaurant Salad
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 3 min
Total time: 23 min
Yield: 6 serving(s)
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice; 1/2 cup olive oil; 2 tablespoons mayonnaise; 2 tablespoons sour cream; 1/2 cup stemmed coarsely chopped fresh cilantro (about 1/2 bunch); 1 green jalapeno chile, stemmed, seeded, and deribbed; 2 garlic cloves, chopped; 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin; 1/4 teaspoon chili powder; 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese; 1 teaspoon olive oil; 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, shelled; salt; 2 heads romaine lettuce, outer leaves removed, torn into bite-sized pieces; 1 small red onion, thinly sliced; 1 avocado, pitted, peeled, and cubed; 1 1/2 cups lightly crushed yellow corn tortilla chips, lightly crushed; fresh ground black pepper; 4 ounces queso fresco, crumbled

Submitted by cookiedog

"This is inspired by a salad from a popular Mexican restaurant chain. If you can't find Queso Fresco, you can substitute with a mild feta. Recipe is from San Francisco Firehouse Food: Cooking with San Francisco's Firefighters."

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photo by Kumquat the Cats fr

Ready In:: 23mins
Ingredients:: 19
Serves:: 6

ingredients

CILANTRO-SOUR CREAM DRESSING
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
¹⁄₂ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sour cream
¹⁄₂ cup stemmed coarsely chopped fresh cilantro (about 1/2 bunch)
1 green jalapeno chile, stemmed, seeded, and deribbed
2 garlic cloves, chopped
¹⁄₄ teaspoon ground cumin
¹⁄₄ teaspoon chili powder
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
Pumpkin Seeds
1 teaspoon olive oil
¹⁄₄ cup pumpkin seeds, shelled
salt
Salad
2 heads romaine lettuce, outer leaves removed, torn into bite-sized pieces
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 avocado, pitted, peeled, and cubed
1 ¹⁄₂ cups lightly crushed yellow corn tortilla chips, lightly crushed
fresh ground black pepper
4 ounces queso fresco, crumbled

directions

To Make the Dressing: Put the lime juice, olive oil, mayonnaise, sour cream, cilantro, jalapeno, garlic, cumin, chili powder, and Parmesan in the container of a blender or food processor; process until smooth.
Refrigerate until ready to use.
To toast the pumpkin seeds: heat the olive oil in a small skillet and add the pumpkin seeds.
Toss continuously until the seeds are lightly toasted, about 3 minutes.
Season to taste with salt and let cool.
To Assemble the Salad: Combine the lettuce, onion, avocado, tortilla chips, and dressing in a large salad bowl.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Sprinkle the queso fresco and toasted pumpkin seeds over the salad.

Questions & Replies

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Reviews

Added Tomatoes. It was delicious.

groovychick
I'm not a big fan of salads, but this was pretty good and very much enjoyed by everyone this Thanksgiving. I tweaked the dressing a bit because it tasted strangely bitter, but otherwise it had good flavor. The queso fresco and pepitas were perfect in this.

rpgaymer
Absolutely awesome! Love the creamy cilantro dressing.

rosslare
This salad is great exactly as written. Spectacular flavour - we loved this. I've also made this substituting sunflower seeds for the pumpkin seeds and that was delicious as well. Thanks for posting!

newfiechic
Very nice!!! Served with taco burgers...it was a hit!

aronsinvest

see 15 more reviews

Tweaks

This salad is great exactly as written. Spectacular flavour - we loved this. I've also made this substituting sunflower seeds for the pumpkin seeds and that was delicious as well. Thanks for posting!

newfiechic
Uh Oh, I forgot to review this one...I ADORE THIS SALAD. It is so different and yummy and i LOVE the dressing and the combo of ingredients. I use green onion instead of red and in a pinch, i've used sunflower seeds if I can't make it to the right store for the pumpkin seeds. Thank you SOOOO much for posting. I plan Mexican and Tex Mex nights just so I can have this salad!

Liza at Food.com
Super salad! Definitely 5 star. A bit higher than my usual low fat fare, though I did reduce the oil to less than 1 tablespoon and subbed water for the rest of the oil and used low fat yogurt instead of sour cream and oil based low fat mayo. BF even ate some avocado although he claims he hates it, and instead of pumpkin seed I used toasted sunflower seeds (easier to find and I happened to have some). We cut the recipe in half and ate all of it. Thanks! Very pleased, made for ZWT 5.

Kumquat the Cats fr
Hi Cookiedog! we loved this salad, I omitted the pumpkin seeds and used cheddar cheese in place of the queso fresco (I have never used that cheese lol!) we really enjoyed the dressing, I plan on making this again soon, thanks!...Kitten:)

Kittencalrecipezazz
This was incredibly easy to make, I was able to throw this together within ten minutes of walking in the house from work as I had all the ingredients already. Okay, just two substitutions: I used lemon juice instead of lime, and I used a local white cheese instead of queso fresco (tzfatit cheese, for any Israelis wanting to make this). I whipped up the dressing with my hand blender. Bing, bang, supper! Thanks, now I just have to convince myself that since it's salad, it's diet food, right?????

Mirj2338

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

Stephanie Y.

Fremont, 43

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