Mexican Chopped Salad with Pumpkin Cilantro Dressing

My dear friend Chef Anne makes salad dressings that rock my world. This is my new favorite. It jazzes up a simple weeknight salad. Try it with hearts of Romaine, some Mexican Cotija cheese, tomato for color and cucumbers for crunch.

Dressing

• 1 Anaheim pepper, charred, peeled, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1/3 cup roasted and salted Mexican pumpkin seeds (Whole Foods sells them)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• juice of one lime
• ½ cup olive oil
• 1 bunch cilantro, washed, last inch of stems removed and discarded

Put everything except the cilantro in a blender. Process a few times. Add the cilantro and blend until smooth.

This will make enough dressing for 2-3 salads, depending on how heavily dressed you like your salad. The dressing will keep in the fridge for a full week.

Salad

• Two small hearts of Romaine, coarsely chopped
• ½ cup Cotija cheese, crumbled
• 1 cup tomatoes, diced
• 1 cup Persian or English cucumbers, peeled and cubed
• 1/3 cup Mexican pumpkin seeds

Toss all of the salad ingredients together with the dressing. Serve.

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Tagged as: Anaheim pepper, cilantro, cotija cheese, dressing, mexican food, pumpkin, salad, salad dressing, tomato