This salad was so fresh and delicious, but it was hearty enough to be a great entrée for our dinner last night. I had a bunch of great items from my organic produce shipment, so a salad was just begging to be made! I had thought of making fajitas with the carne asada, but we have been eating a little heavy lately, so I wanted to keep it light and use the beatiful produce I had on hand. This salad with the savory beef, fresh produce and tangy dressing was incredibly flavorful with a nice crunch!
I had some perfect green leaf lettuce, a perfectly ripe avocado, a nice firm tomato and green onions. I just love my organic produce!!! I also had some organic cilantro, so I decided to make my own dressing. I was really happy with the tangy result that added a ton of flavor to the salad!
I decided to marinade the carne asada for half a day before cooking. I had a few Frontera marinade packets on hand. I decided to go with what was actually a chicken marinade, but what the heck it sounded good! Since I was making a salad, I didn’t want to go with flavors that are super intense, like barbacoa. I had a few Frontera sauce packets in my pantry and I decided to go with the Roasted Garlic Chicken Skillet Sauce with Chipotle and Lime. The flavors sounded good and they did not disappoint! The flavors were light and bright and worked just fine on the beef.
Carne Asada Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing
Salad
1 pound carne asada beef
1 packet Frontera marinade (I used the flavor above, but they have several flavors, including fajita,that would work well)
1 head green leaf lettuce, washed, dried and chopped
6 green onions, sliced
2 tomatoes, diced
1 avocado, diced
Tortilla chips, crumbled
Dressing
Juice of 3 limes
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp peppper
Start by putting your meat and marinade in a zip-log bag. Mix well making sure all meat is covered with marinade. Store in fridge for a few hours. Next, make your dressing. I used my immersion blender to blend all the ingredients or you can put them all in a food processor or blender. Blend until well mixed and cilantro and garlic are in very fine bits.
Heat a pan sprayed with non-stick spray over medium high heat. Sear each piece of meat for a couple of minutes on each side. You don’t want to over cook carne asada or it will get tough. Once all meat is cooked, cut it into bite size strips. Put meat and remaining 5 salad ingredients in a large bowl. Top with some dressing and toss. Add enough dressing to lightly coat all salad. You may have extra left over depending on how much dressing you like. Sliced black olives would also be a good add, but I didn’t have any.
Enjoy!
Inside Kel's Kitchen 