Cornbread Salad for the Weekly Cookbook Challenge – Part 3

As I mentioned earlier, I also made a half recipe of the vegetarian version of the salad this morning. If anything, it received an even warmer reception from my (expected and unexpected) audience. My husband and I work for a small church-related camp, and on Sunday, our next camper groups come in to begin their week. Which means lunch is the last meal our paid staff has alone together. Normally. So I thought I would bring these salads to share with everyone. Well, some of the campers arrived early, and so we had a lot folks who had a chance to try these out, and I have to say, I’ve had more requests for recipes after serving these than anything else I’ve made in a long time. And even more surprising—this vegetarian version seemed to be the favorite—seems to be the jalapeno!

So, here is the process for this version:

First, crumble the (nicely and unnecessarily cubed) cornbread into a large bowl:

Cover with all the chopped and shredded goodies:

Pour dressing over, mix and serve and devour again:

Here’s the actual recipe—in the cookbook, there is just a paragraph telling you which ingredients are added, which are left out, but I thought it might be easier if you just had it laid out like the other recipe. Oh, and Elayne is a friend of the author who came up with this variation.

 

1 skillet of cornbread

1 15 oz. can pinto beans, rinsed and drained

½ cup mayonnaise

½ cup sour cream

½ cup sweet pickle relish

2 T. juice from sweet pickle relish

2 T. chipotle barbecue sauce

1 bunch scallions, finely sliced

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

2 green bell peppers, cored, seeded, and finely chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, cored, seeded, and finely chopped

4 to 5 juicy ripe tomatoes, cut into medium-size chunks

1. Coarsely crumble the cornbread into a good big bowl and let it dry out for a few hours.
2. Stir or whisk together the mayo, relish, relish juice and barbecue sauce. That’s your dressing. Set it aside.
3. When the crumbled cornbread has dried slightly, toss in the scallions, peppers, tomatoes, cheese and pinto beans. Toss well, so that everything is well distributed.
4. Spoon the dressing over the top and stir thoroughly. Cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to serve. It can be made up to 24 hours in advance.

My tweaks: Again, grape tomatoes were the tomatoes of choice. I could not find chipotle barbecue sauce, so I used a couple tablespoons of a spicy barbecue sauce and a couple tablespoons of a chipotle salsa. Also, since I know folks may not like biting down on a chunk of jalapeno, I tossed it into the small bowl of my food processor, chopped it up, and then added the rest of the dressing ingredients and blended it all together, pouring it over the salad at the end.

These are definitely keepers.