Here’s the deal: I’d bought a large-ish package of fresh corn tortillas to make gluten-free artichoke appetizer cups for our holiday gathering, then I decided to just make the dip as, well, a dip, and served it with flat bread and corn chips; so, I had this bag o’ tortillas hangin’ around… then I came across a recipe for tortilla soup, which put me in mind of tortilla salad, which put me in mind of these darned tortillas taking up space in my bread box, and a plan began to come together. Oh, and as a bonus, there’s another French dressing recipe involved!
INGREDIENTS
Tortillas:
•Corn tortillas
•Olive oil
•Sea salt
•Aleppo pepper
•Tellicherry black pepper
Salad:
•Romaine
•Red onion, sliced thin
•Black olives, sliced
•Sun-dried tomatoes, julienned
•Grated carrots
(Another) French Dressing:
•The juice of 1 lemon, plus enough red wine vinegar to measure 1/4 cup
•2 tbsp minced fresh onion
•2 tbsp sugar
•1/2 tsp seasoned salt
•1/4 tsp celery salt
•1/2 tsp dry mustard
•1/2 tsp Caribbean Calypso seasoning
(or use some orange zest and a bit of chili powder, taco seasoning, or Cajun seasoning)
•1/2 tsp paprika
•1/8 tsp black pepper
•1/2 cup canola oil
•1/4 cup olive oil
First, make the dressing by placing all the ingredients except for the oils into your blender and giving it all a good whizzz to mix.
Scrape the jar down and, with the blender running, s-l-o-w-l-y drizzle in the combined oils and continue whizzzing until the dressing is nicely emulsified. Set aside.
Preheat your oven to 450º.
Arrange the corn tortillas on a rack fitted into a foil-lined pan and brush with olive oil. Season with sea salt, Aleppo, and Tellicherry pepper, then flip the tortillas and repeat.
A little fresh lime juice might not be a bad thing here, either.
Cut the oiled and seasoned tortillas into thin strips and arrange in a single layer on the rack in the pan.
Pop into the oven and bake until nicely crispity – these took all of ten minutes – then set aside to cool (try not to eat them all as they’re cooling).
Make your salad using the ingredients listed above, or as you like it, then toss.
Serve with the tortilla strips on top, and pass with the French dressing.
Nice salad, and the tortilla crisps were just about perfect!
It coulda mebbe stood to have a dab of lime and chipotle guacamole on top, but that’s a post for next week, I think…