After all the treats of Thanksgiving and my birthday, I found myself at the office one day in search of something fresh for lunch. I was trying to think back to my pre-pandemic, pre-non profit days in the Financial District and what my go-to moves for lunch were and the Santa Fe Salad from Earls popped into my mind. It’s the only thing I would ever order when we went there. I walked over to pick up takeout and it was just as delicious (and expensive) as I remembered.

There’s lots going on here: crunchy romaine, roasted corn, black beans, dates, feta, avocado, crunchy tortilla strips and some blackened chicken. The whole thing is tossed with a peanut lime vinaigrette and everything combined together is a flavour (and texture) explosion.

Now that I’ve finally found a feta that I like at Farmboy (this has been a decades long search), I was excited to re-create this at home. I googled for a copycat recipe and found this and it hit the mark. Instead of blackened chicken, I topped it with Chili Lime Salmon, and it was an excellent addition.

Santa Fe Salad with Peanut Lime Vinaigrette

Source: Food Duchess

Ingredients

Peanut Lime Vinaigrette

• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
• zest of 1 lime
• 3 tbsp peanut butter (regular or natural)
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp sugar (+ 1 extra tsp if you used natural peanut butter)
• 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 garlic clove, grated with a microplane

Salad

• chopped romaine lettuce
• corn (I caramelized some frozen corn in a skillet with olive oil, salt and pepper)
• black beans (I tossed them in with the corn to heat them through)
• chopped dates
• crumbled feta
• sliced avocado
• crispy tortilla strips (I just bought these at the grocery store)
• chicken or salmon (I made the Chili Lime Salmon from this recipe, and this rub would also work on chicken, or just use some shredded rotisserie chicken)

Directions

1. For the vinaigrette, whisk everything together in a small bowl.
2. For the salad, just assemble according to your preferences and toss with vinaigrette!