Easy Salad with Chipotle Hash Brown, Chicken Sausage, and Cilantro Lime Dressing

I saw a recipe for chipotle cilantro latkes well over a year ago.  I saw the recipe and immediate thought it is something Ben would love.  But I never knew how to make it part of a meal.  Then with the big storm of June 29, 2012, we did not have any power.  I did an inventory of food and found that I had all right ingredients to make a salad with chipotle latkes: potatoes, salad greens, low fat plain Greek yogurt, canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, Al Fresco chicken sausage, bell peppers, onion, limes, cilantro puree in a tube.

So I made the latkes, which are similar to hash browns made of shredded potato, egg, flour, and flavorings.  In culinary school we semi cooked the potatoes before shredding.  This seemed to make the potato extra sticky.  We would put them on the the skillet and they just stuck there.  We tried so many different things- more oil, less oil, hotter oil, less hot oil, but none of it worked.  I remember that being a really aggravating cooking session.  So this time I tried not cooking the potato at all.  It worked better.  It was still a little sticky, but worked much better. 

This meal can be made mild, medium, or extra spicy.  I accidentally made it just a little too spicy for me, but Ben loved it.  Ben actually loved the whole meal so much he said it was his new favorite meal.

Easy Salad with Chipotle Hash Brown, Chicken Sausage, and Cilantro Lime Yogurt Dressing

What you'll need:

For the potato hash browns

- 1 medium potato, washed

- 1 tbsp plain Greek yogurt

- 1 chipotle pepper, finely chopped

- 1 tsp egg white

- 1/2 tsp cilantro puree

- 1 tsp grated onion

- 1 tbsp breadcrumbs

- pinch of cumin

- pinch of salt

- 2 links chicken sausage (such as Al Fresco), skin removed, in 1/2" slices

- 4 cups salad green

- 1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper

- 1/4 cup thinly sliced yellow onion

- 6 grape tomatoes, halved

- 1/2 tbsp olive oil

- 1/3 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt

- 1 tsp adobo sauce

- 1 tsp cilantro puree

- 2 tbsp lime juice

- pinch of salt

- 1/2 tsp agave nectar

What to do:

1.  Use a thick cheese shredder to shred the potatoes.  Rinse over a strainer and squeeze our the excess water; pat dry.  Combine with the next 8 ingredients.  Form into 4 patties and set aside.

2. The Alfresco sausage is precooked, but I reheat it in the pan and get it a little bit crispy.  If you are using raw sausage, be absolutely sure to cook it all the way through in a saute pan over medium-high heat with a little bit of olive oil.

3. Combine the Greek yogurt and the next 5 ingredients (through agave nectar) and set aside.

4. Add about 1 tbsp olive oil (enough to cover the bottom) to a flat pan and heat over medium on the stove.  Add the potato hash browns and cook about 2 minutes on each side.  Move them around a little bit frequently to make sure they do not completely stick to the pan.

5. Make two salads with the greens, bell pepper, onion, and tomato.  Sprinkle each with 1/4 tbsp olive oil.  Top each with two hash browns, chicken sausage, and cilantro lime yogurt dressing.  Recipe makes 2 servings.

Nutrition Information

381 calories, 36g carbs, 4g fiber, 28g protein, 14g total fat, 3g saturated fat, 667mg sodium