Macho Salad
A favorite restaurant in Chicago was Bandera, perhaps because Hillstone owns it - the same people that bought and own Houston’s. But they have a salad there, the Macho Salad, which I assume is named because even their male customers order it and love it. One afternoon, I was meeting a friend there for lunch, and a co-worker, Rachel, asked me to bring her back a Macho Salad. By the time I got back to the office, I realized they had forgotten the dressing. This is the key to the whole salad! Luckily, my apartment building was next door to my office building; I raced next door to try to copycat the dressing. After Rachel finished her lunch, I asked if she noticed anything different. “No, why? What did you do?”
3 cups of mixed greens: mesclun, field greens, maybe arugula, some romaine*
2 ears of corn
2 small campari tomatoes, diced
1 cup dates, pitted and chopped
1 avocado, large dice
1 cup of shredded chicken
4 oz goat cheese
1/4 cup almonds, sliced and toasted
1 cup cornbread croutons
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
~ Boil ears of corn for five minutes. Remove kernels from cob.
~ Toast large cubes of cornbread till just browned.
~ Layer lettuce, corn, tomatoes, dates, avocado, chicken (I use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store.), goat cheese, almonds, and croutons.
* It’s important that the salad has some crunchy lettuce, but some leafiness as well.
“I don’t eat celery; the calories you burn chewing the stuff equals the calories in it. I refuse to eat any food that has no net calories.”
~ Thomas H. Raines Jr.
