My friend Jenny’s Gram knew her way around salads – especially potato salad and – yes – it’s true, corned beef salad. Jenny and her Gram used this almost exclusively as a sammich filling, but, it turns out it also makes a most excellent salad salad, especially with added red onion, tiny tomatoes, and sliced Kalamata olives on a bed of chopped Romaine.
I wouldn’t say “no” to some sliced peperoncini and some fresh cracked black pepper, either.
With apologies to Jen’ and her Gram, this version is more of an homage to their recipe; as I used a can of corned beef in hot chili sauce, replaced the chopped gherkins with my own Chop Pickle, and added a few other things.
Note: canned corned beef is fine for this salad, but, as always, if you happen to have some leftover corned beef (like, from this barbecue recipe), that would make this salad even better.
INGREDIENTS
•1 can corned beef (the “hot” chili seasoning wasn’t especially so)
•1 cup diced red onion
•1/2 cup diced celery
•1/2 cup mayonnaise
•2 tbsp Chop Pickle
(or 8 or so sweet gherkin pickles, chopped)
•1 tsp dried parsley
•1/2 tsp curry powder*
*If you’re nervous about this, start out with 1/4 teaspoon and see what you think.
Stir the chop pickle (or gherkins) together with the onion and celery, then stir in the mayonnaise.
Crumble the corned beef into the veggie mixture and stir until nicely blended.
Note: if you’re using leftover corned beef, cut it into small cubes or flake it.
So. This corned beef salad was pretty good to go, but…
I thought it could still use a little sumpin’ sumpin’ (I had been expecting some sort of a kick from that “hot” chili sauce); so, thinking back to my fave curried tuna salad, I opted to add one teaspoon of dried parsley and that half teaspoon of curry powder.
Much more better!
For best results, cover the salad and stash in the fridge overnight to let the flavors meld.