Stetson Salad

My sisters and I had this wonderful sweet/savory salad long long ago at Cowboy Ciao - a now-gone restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was SO good, one of those meals you keep thinking about for years. My sister Saydi found a good copycat recipe and it's now a favorite family dinner. We especially love it in the summer but it's good all year round!

Cowboy Ciao’s Stetson Chopped Salad

Dressing
1/4 cup basil pesto (use prepared pesto from Costco or grocery store or use your own homemade pesto)

1/2 shallot, roughly chopped (or 1/4 small onion)
1/2 cup aioli (Aioli is like garlicky mayonnaise. Look for it in gourmet food stores, or make your own by blending together 1 to 2 garlic cloves, 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup mayonnaise)

1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1-2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4-1/2 tsp salt (to taste)

Directions for the dressing: Combine pesto, shallot and aioli in a food processor; blend thoroughly. With motor running at medium speed, add buttermilk, pepper, salt and lemon juice; blend to combine. Makes about 1 1/4 cups.

Salad (4 entree-sized salad servings)
2 cups cooked, drained and cooled Israeli couscous - also called pearl couscous (you can use "frog eye" pasta or orzo pasta if you cant' find the pearl couscous)

1 tub or bag (about 8 oz) of baby arugula, coursely chopped or whole
3-4 diced Roma tomatoes or 2 cups of cherry or grape tomatoes, quartered

1/2 cup crumbled or shredded Asiago cheese (parmesan)

1/2 cup toasted pepitas - green pumpkin seeds (buy the raw ones and toast until slightly brown in a frying pan on the stove)

1/2 cup dried currants (or Craisins if you can't find currants - but the currants are really good!)

1/2 cup super-sweet dried corn - available on Amazon or at Harmons (or regular frozen corn, thawed)

1 small chopped avocado (optional)

1 chopped red pepper (optional)

1-2 cups diced smoked (or grilled) salmon (or cooked bite-sized chicken) - leave this out if you want to do a vegetarian salad or side salad to go with grilled fish, chicken or other meat

Directions for the salad: Arrange ingredients in separate rows on a large platter. Toss salad at the table (so people can see how pretty it is before it's tossed or toss in advance if you'd rather) with most or all of the dressing (depending on how dressed you like your salad). You can save extra dressing in your fridge for a week or two.


Adapted from: http://archive.azcentral.com/style/hfe/recipes/articles/1212restreq1212.html