Southwest Layered Salad ~ page 61

I made this salad for the outdoor cookout we went to over the weekend, so I didn't use a pretty glass bowl to show off the layers. But this sure is a nice salad for traveling! I love that it can be made many hours before serving.

I made the dressing up first--that is easy, just  blend ranch dressing with salsa and it's done.

Now start layering ingredients:

First comes the chopped romaine lettuce, the black beans, then the shoepeg corn. Shoepeg corn is white sweetcorn that is valued for its sweetness. It is characterized by small, narrow kernels, and only comes in a can. And would you like to know where it gets such a name? The name "shoepeg corn" derives from a showmaking term used during the 1800's. Shoepeg corn kernels resemble the wooden pegs used to attach soles to the upper part of shoes. And now you know the rest of the story...

The dressing goes on top all that...

then the cheese, and now it is ready to wait in the fridge until time to travel. I chopped up the tomatoes and crushed the tortilla chips to bring separately. (I used a combo of yellow and blue corn tortilla chips--just because I had them.)

When the time is right, add the tomatoes and chips and serve it up right away! The chips can get soft pretty quick, so don't do this part before you need to. If the salad needs to stand around a bit, I would suggest serving the crushed chips along side as a topping.  The slight spiciness from the dressing, the sweet corn, and the beans make this an interesting and hearty salad.