Mexican Caesar Salad
Mexican Caesar Salad
A delicious twist on an old favorite. This is a great summer salad, either as a light entree (just add your favorite protein!) or appetizer.
Ingredients
- For the Croutons:
- 2 cups worth of a crusty, day-old French baguette torn into small 1 inch cubes
- 1 TBSP butter
- 1 TBSP grated Parmesan
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- 1 tsp olive oil
- For the Dressing:
- 2 TBSP mayonnaise
- The juice of one lemon
- 3 anchovies
- 3 TBSP finely chopped basil leaves
- 1 ripe avocado
- 1 scallion, thinly sliced
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- For the Salad:
- 1 1/2 cups of corn kernels, cooked in 1 TBSP olive oil
- 2 romaine hearts, leaves separated or chopped- you decide!
- Shaved Parmesan cheese
- Anchovies for garnish
- Salt and pepper for seasoning
Directions
- Step 1 Char the corn: Heat 1 TBSP oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add corn kernels and cook 10 to 12 minutes or until it starts to brown, stirring occasionally.
- Step 2 Meanwhile, make the croutons: Heat butter in a small non-stick pan over medium high heat. Once the butter begins to foam, add the bread cubes and sauté in the butter for about 4-5 minutes until they start to turn golden. Add parmesan cheese to the pan, swirling to ensure it coats the croutons. Remove from heat, drizzle olive oil over the croutons and season with garlic salt. Set aside.
- Step 3 Make the avocado dressing: Put the mayonnaise, anchovies, basil, lemon juice, avocado and scallion in a small food processor. Add 1 tsp salt and a few grinds of pepper then puree until smooth. Adjust the seasoning with additional salt and pepper, if necessary. Set aside.
- Step 4 Assemble the salad: Spread a spoonful of the avocado dressing across the plate first. Assemble the romaine leaves on top of the dressing. Sprinkle with charred corn, croutons and shaved parmesan cheese. Garnish with anchovies (if that’s your thing!), drizzle with olive oil and additional salt & pepper.
If there is one thing I love about vacation, it’s the chance to really indulge, try new and different foods, and eat pretty much whatever my heart desires. (Within reason of course, but I have been known to eat two ice cream cones a day while on vacay – you only live once!) I always get so inspired by what we eat on vacation, but I realized on my last trip that I need to make more of an effort to try and recreate some of these amazing dishes when I get home. This recipe is living proof.
We just returned from a family trip to Beaches resort in Turks and Caicos. Such an amazing experience – food and all. Heck, the place has 22 restaurants! In just 4 nights we ate everything from hibachi, to tex-mex, to Jamaican jerk, not to mention some of the best chocolate croissants I’ve ever had outside of Paris. Sadly, my son – who ate his weight in chicken nuggets the whole trip – totally missed out! I have a bunch of other recipes from the trip that I want to recreate, but believe it or not – the very first was this Mexican Caesar salad we had at Arizona’s Cantina.
What makes a salad so inspiring? I thought it was such a unique twist on your traditional Caesar. The basic foundation of the salad is the same: romaine lettuce, Parmesan cheese, croutons but served with an avocado goddess dressing and charred corn kernels (my own added bonus!). Arizona’s didn’t have the corn in their version but I thought it was a nice touch and a way to make it seem more Mexican-influenced. But I’m not going to lie – the avocado dressing is what DEFINES this salad! I plated it so that the dressing is the base, you can see it peaking it out from underneath the bed of lettuce here:
I had a lot of fun whipping this up, testing the flavors and ingredients (working from memory only), and then putting my own spin on the recipe. And it ended up being a heartier salad than I even expected so it works really well as a salad entree course. I served it with a delicious lemon pepper poached salmon fillet and I’m not going to lie, I was pretty stuffed. Other proteins like steak or shrimp would also pair nicely. A great summer dish and a fun salad to try when you’re sick of the same-old same-old.
