Southwest Salad w/ Grilled Tenderloin & Avocado Skewers

The recipes on this blog will not start like most food blogs where there’s some ungodly long intro about how the recipe was inspired when “my mother taught me that food is love,” and “I started viewing the world differently” or any of that unnecessary bullshit you definitely do not care about.

This is a simple, yet delicious salad I made for the Summer menu at a restaurant I was working for in the South Side of Boston. Although I didn’t use canned ingredients in the restaurant, this recipe is slightly modified for ease of use in the common household.

 
 

Chipotle Ranch

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups mayonnaise

  • 2 cups buttermilk

  • 1 TBSP dried cilantro

  • 1 TBSP onion powder

  • 1 TBSP garlic powder

  • 1 tsp ground white pepper

  • 1 tsp kosher salt

  • 1 can chipotle chilis (in adobo sauce)

Instructions:

  1. In a mixing bowl, whisk all the ingredients except for the chipotle

  2. Separately, using either a stick blender (or regular old fashioned blender if you don’t have one), puree the chipotle chlis making sure to get all the adobo sauce you can.

  3. Incorporate pureed chilis into the ranch in small batches taste frequently. Chipotles pack a good amount of heat and everyone’s tolerance is different so don’t make it too spicy for yourself.

Tenderloin & Avocado Skewers

Ingredients: (makes three skewers)

  • 1 pound tenderloin tips

  • 3 avocados (still slightly firm)

Instructions:

  1. Season the tenderloin tips with kosher salt and black pepper and place on the grill. Cook to your liking (I recommend medium rare)

  2. Quarter and peel avocados, rub with olive oil, season and grill

  3. When tenderloin tips are cooked to your liking, take off grill and let rest

  4. Skewer tenderloin and avocado

Southwestern Salad

Ingredients:

  • 1 package mesclun salad greens (can sub spring mix if you can’t find mesclun)

  • 1 can black beans, drained

  • 1 can whole kernel yellow sweet corn (if you can find the fire roasted kind even better)

  • 1 diced red onion (most supermarkets sell diced onions in little packages if you don’t trust your knife skills)

  • 1 package of cherry tomatoes, halved

  • 1 package of tortilla strips

  • 1 package Mexican blend cheese

  • A few freshly picked cilantro leaves

Instructions:

  • Honestly I leave this part to you. Everyone likes their salads a little differently and it comes down to personal taste at this point. Some people like their salads with more beans or onions or cheese or whatever, so just add however much of each ingredient you desire into your salad.

  • Mix in the chipotle ranch and toss.

  • Top with the skewers and enjoy!

Luis Fayad