Southwest Salad and Arthur Miller

I go through phases and lately I've been in a salad phase. We had dinner with Dan's daughter Alona, her boyfriend Nate and his mom to celebrate his birthday at the Surly Taproom last week. While not a beer drinker myself I understand the options were quite good. What I did sample was some of the best roasted brussel sprouts and cauliflower I've had in a long time. Of course none of these are directly related to salads right?

While waiting for our food to come Alona was telling me about her new ventures in salads. She's been using mason jars and layering ingredients so that they stay fresh. Her new fav is a kale salad with other veggies and a simple oil, vinegar, salt and pepper dressing. Which got me thinking we hadn't had a giant salad; you know the kind that is a meal, all by itself for a very long time.

So as luck would have it, I had an idea. For those of you who've been to my house for dinner you know I rely on a balsamic vinegar with garlic and curry as my main dressing but I was thinking we needed to shake things up a bit and we had 2 ripe avocados so I did a quick search for a salad/dressing that could incorporate them. I found a keeper that is simple, requires few ingredients and is delicious.

I used ½ avocado, 1 cup of water, and the juice of ½ lime, cumin, salt, pepper and ½ of a jalapeno finely chopped. Place everything in and mix until smooth – you'll be glad you did. 

So now that I had an avocado based salad dressing, I realized that they only salad that would perfectly compliment it would be … of course a "Southwest Salad." I started with a mixture of spinach and kale (about 2/3rds spinach to 1/3^rd kale). To that I added, 1 can of black beans (rinsed), 1 cup of corn, 1 red pepper (chopped), 1 bunch scallions, 2 sweet potatoes (chopped and roasted with olive oil and maple syrup), 1 large tomato (chopped), 1 ½ avocados (chopped), and a large handful of chopped cilantro.  Pour the dressing on top, toss and serve. 

And what does all of this have to do with Arthur Miller; well it was dinner before we went to see his play The Crucible, which by the way was extremely well done. It had a 3-hour run time (including intermission) but it seemed like time just flew by. The acting was superb and everyone seemed perfectly cast. The sets were well done and the pacing and intensity just right – if you happen to be in Mpls, spend the time and money to attend the performance at the Guthrie. 

Have a great week - and don't forget to make a salad now and then.