Cowboys. Eating salad. Mmmmkay. Not exactly what comes to mind.
But I guess if cowboys can eat chunky salsa and even chunkier chocolate bars, well, there may be room for salad. After all, they may have a soft spot for veggie burgers, of all things.
On to the salad. It's a darn good one. With one major caveat: You gotta like cilantro - a lot. Because that's really what every single bite tasted like - sharp, biting cilantro, accentuated even a bit further by green onion. I happen to enjoy cilantro to a moderate degree, and I was beginning to get close to a breaking point. Really, a fleshy, sweet addition - think grape tomato or even roasted corn - would have helped keep it all in check.
If only so much of the sald weren't drowned out by those ubiquitous cilantro sprigs.
We ate our salad with some grilled chicken strips, which made a pretty fulfilling meal. Some beef or grilled steak strips would another great addition, or even some tofu or black beans for a little protein. Would also recommend tomatoes and/or corn depending on your tastes. So it's not quite a "complete salad" kit in my estimation, but it'll get you most of the way there with a little room for customization to boot. Not bad for $3.99.
Bottom line: Trader Joe's Southwestern Chopped Salad: 7.5 out of 10 Golden Spoons.
I want to add in that there were not as many servings as the bag said!
ReplyDeleteI ate all of this bag except one serving in less than 2 days. oops.
ReplyDeleteI love cilantro. That's actually a selling point for me because most things never taste enough like cilantro to me.
ReplyDeleteThey had a kale salad in a yellow bag with the most amazing dressing..the garnish was Parmesan cheese, sunflower seeds, cranberries and perhaps other things .. I think they discontinued it but it was AMAzing
ReplyDeleteThis one????
Deletehttp://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article/2799
If you're talking about this one, I agree, it was amazing! I wish they sold that dressing in bottles.
I love this. It’s made me so happy to read about someone’s salad enthusiasm. I wish the world could be as happy as you were about this salad 🥺🦋
DeleteI love cilantro so this sound kind of amazing...! I'm not usually a fan of TJs dressings but this sounds unique and tasty
ReplyDeleteI get the bagged "complete" salads once in a while for lunches- i add in some canned beans and get two good sized filling lunches!
Ttrockwood
Ok, so i had this yesterday and you are either crazy or just crazy sensitive to cilantro!! I could taste it but certainly wasn't overwhelming or even the most prominent flavor, the cabbage really came through. The "spicy" dressing just wasn't at all, and i'm very sensitive to spice. I wasn't a big fan of the tortilla bits but the pepitas were nice for crunch. Don't think i will buy again but it was certainly tasty enough.
DeleteTtrockwood
TJs sign said a serving should be one cup (some bags say a serving is three cups!)
I did not taste cilantro in this salad. I tasted a bit of cumin-but I would have loved the “sharp, biting, cilantro” that the writer reported. Overall, a pleasant salad-reminiscent of a taco salad. Not overly dressed, feels reasonably healthy, dressing wasn’t sugary or syrupy.
DeleteI love cilantro and loved this salad! I've bought it twice already. FYI they were sampling it at my local TJs yesterday and saw a sign that the serving size was improperly printed on the bag or something. I didn't pay much attention to it so I'm not sure what it said.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are right about the serving size. 4 is a lot for a small bag. I see this being more of 2 servings. Can't imagine that is correct. I love this salad. Bought two bags of it already. I have 1/2 for lunch and the other 1/2 for lunch the next day.
DeleteI guess I messed up on posting my comment. I'm not allowed to buy bagged salad. My husband say's too many recalls. I would not like a lot of cilantro anyway.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t detect cilantro at all-maybe a touch of cumin.
DeleteEver think it could be a cowgirl's, not cowboy's, boot on the package? It *is* salad, after all! ;)
ReplyDeleteFYI, Pepita is the Spanish word for pumpkin seed, so your request to "call them what they are" is what Treader Joe's is doing...
ReplyDeleteThe sharp flavor in my salad was coming from the cotija cheese (which was I believe the Tajo variety and is far form mild (supposed to be similar to feta, mine tasted almost like blue)
ReplyDeleteThe cheese that cane in my salad didn’t taste it look like cotija-it wa extremely mild-like a Muenster or mozzarella. Cotija ya usually crumbled and is sharp like an aged cheese.
DeleteSO I bought some of the thinly sliced pollo asado that TJ sells (in the raw meats section) and wound up blackening them... easy to blame my less-than-prime cooking skills, but I definitely feel the spices left on the meat were a contributor, haha.
ReplyDeleteAnywho, I wound up cutting the chicken into strips, briefly baked/folded some small tortillas in half, and filled them with the blackened chicken and this salad after dressing it with everything in the package. Grab a wedge of lime and you're set!
Also, I'm fosho on board with some of the other commenters. Especially as a main part of the entree, you're looking at more like two servings per bag.
I hadn't noticed the boot either, and I had two packages in my house. lol I discovered this salad yesterday, as TJ's was sampling. It has only arrived in our locations.
ReplyDeleteI don't think of cowboys when I see the boot, just the SW (which is what I think the image is supposed to evoke - for whatever reason).
I made both bags, added one poached chicken breast (torn in shreds), and it was a wonderful dinner with slices of baguette.
There are two of us, hubby and myself, and we had a substantial dinner, plus there were leftovers for lunch.
I did get gypped on the cojita cheese, as one package didn't have any, but I just added a little cubed cheddar.
An excellent salad. I hope it stays around for a while. We've been eating the kale/broccoli salad, which is similar in packaging to this, so it's nice to have an alternative.
I enjoyed eating this salad yesterday for my dinner. It says 4 servings(cups) but I ate 2 servings just for myself. I avoided the cheese(not a fan, and extra calories). The chopped salads are my favorite kind, loved the choice of veggies, tasty dressing, crispy strips and pepitas! whats not to love. I am a big fan of cilantro so it made my meal more tastier.
ReplyDeletedownside: even 2 servings is still less for 1 person. It is missing protein content. I added a fried egg on top.
Alternative combo I can think of along with this salad:
Add quinoa, canned beans(garbanzo/black), corn, boiled egg(s), grilled chicken or rotisserie chicken.
They ARE pepitas. Why the hate?
ReplyDelete