Summer Southwest Salad with Chipotle Dressing (Raw)
I am typing as fast as I can because I want to get this raw Southwest Salad recipe to you for the long weekend! It is the perfect salad for your 4th of July. This Southwest Salad makes good use of all of the wonderful produce that is showing up in our gardens and at the farmer’s market. We have cherry tomatoes that are starting to produce like crazy. And seeing beautiful corn is showing up at the market. One of the benefits of living in California! Some days I can’t get over the fact that I can walk out into my back yard and pick limes and lemons, let alone the tomatoes, peppers, herbs and other delicious things we have planted.
Southwest Summer Salad with Chipotle Dressing
One of our favorite summer salads is a raw southwest salad that uses fresh raw corn and a raw, vegan chipotle dressing that you will love. This salad is loaded with romaine lettuce, corn, tomatoes, peppers, avocado, pumpkin seeds, red onion, cilantro and my favorite part, mango! Since this recipe is raw, it uses raw corn. It might sound strange to some of you but raw corn is so tasty. Just make sure you get younger ears. You might become a convert. I actually prefer raw corn to cooked corn! It is light and refreshing in this salad.
Salad Ingredients
The dressing for the southwest salad comes together very quickly in your blender. Because we are focusing on using whole foods, dates, which are full of nutrients are used as the sweetener in the dressing. Acid likes a little sweet to play against and even though you can’t taste dates in the dressing, they balance out the other ingredients beautifully. Feel free to omit them if you wish.
Dressing Ingredients
I hope this Southwest Salad becomes one of your favorites! It’s a great way to get a lot of delicious produce into your diet! Even though this salad is very substantial, you can add black beans (not raw) to make it even more so!
Healthy Romaine
Romaine lettuce is one of my favorites. I love the refreshing crunch, and the mild flavor especially when used in salads with a lot of flavor. But did you know that romaine is super healthy? It is high in calcium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus. It also has calcium, vitamin K and folate! So, enjoy your romaine knowing that you are getting a good dose of nutrients along with the refreshing crunch.
Southwest Summer Salad with Chipotle Dressing
Makes 6-8 Servings
Salad
- 2 large heads, romaine lettuce
- 3 cups fresh corn (not cooked)
- 1 cup red onion, diced
- 1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
- 2 avocados, diced
- 3/4 cup sweet peppers, diced
- 1 cup pumpkin seeds
- 2 cups diced mango
- 1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon Himalayan salt
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
- Place all ingredients in large bowl and toss to mix.
Dressing
- 3/4 cup cashews, softened by soaking in water
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 1/2 tablespoons lime juice (more to taste)
- 2-3 dates, pitted and softened
- 2 teaspoons chipotle powder
- 1 tablespoon finely diced garlic
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
- Blend cashews, water, lime juice, dates and chipotle powder in high-speed blender until smooth.
- Add garlic, salt and pepper. Pulse once or twice to blend in.
- Pour over salad and toss to coat.
Clara wrote on July 6, 2017
This looks so good! I want to try is soon. Do you have any suggestions I could try for replacing the cashews? I have a nut allergy, to sadly most nuts. A vegan with nut allergies is zero fun :/ Thanks!!!
cheryl wrote on August 6, 2017
subsitute raw tahini
Susan wrote on July 6, 2017
Hi, Clare, Are you allergic to all nuts? Are there any you can eat? You could also sub tofu but that isn’t raw. Cheers!
Marie wrote on July 3, 2017
I’ve tried this awesome dressing. So great! Thanks for sharing it!