I don’t often make salads. When I do, the leftover ingredients usually go bad in this household of two. Then the guilt eats away at me. Then I vow never to let that happen again. So I steer clear from salads–it’s not that I don’t enjoy eating them, but who wants to be caught in a vicious cycle of wilty greens and guilt?
This salad, however, sunk me as soon as I saw its good-looking’ mug shot on Tasty Kitchen. And since it’s a warm salad, it can count as a main dish for a meal, and thus get consumed faster, before it goes bad and adds itself to my Register of Remorse. It satisfies the typical American man (meat, potatoes) and woman (leafy greens) so that everyone can be happy. It’s so good that we ate it two nights in a row, and then went and made it a third time the next night with a different kind of sausage.
Ingredients
(Serves 4)
1.5 lbs new potatoes or red potatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
15 oz chorizo sausage
1 TBS olive oil
16 oz mixed salad greens
1 lemon
4 poached or fried eggs (1 per person, optional)
Here are the ingredients:
And the eggs are optional, but they come highly recommended. By me.
Wash the potatoes and chop them into bite-sized cubes.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil . . .
. . . and add the potatoes.
Cook them for 10-15 minutes, or until tender when pierced with a fork (but not falling apart!).
In the meantime, chop the sausage into small chunks.
I’ve never dealt with Mexcan chorizo before, and this step was messier than what I bargained for–next time I’ll just put the whole thing in the pan and break it apart as it cooks. The original recipe used Spanish chorizo, which is cured and hard (so it will retain its shape). My grocery store, however, only had this:
It’s delicious, but a completely different animal, and crumbles apart as you cook it. It’s up to you (and the availability of these products) to decide which kind you get.
Heat the olive oil in a cast iron skillet or other large pan over medium heat. When it’s hot, add the sausage . . .
. . . and cook for about 10 minutes, until it’s getting brown and starting to release oil of its own. This was the moment when my fantasy of having the sausage cook in chunks was decimated. Overturned. Debunked.
Oh well. Ground meat it is.
Once the potatoes are cooked, add them to the pan with the sausage and cook it all together for about 10-12 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add a good amount of salt and pepper to taste.
If you’re adding some eggs, this is the time to try or poach them. Sorry, no pictures of this part–just one shot of a lonely egg that was quickly poached in my leftover potato-boiling water.
Wash and prepare the salad greens, piling them on the plates:
Spoon the chorizo and potatoes on top . . .
. . . and finish the salad off with a generous squeeze of lemon.
I’m talking generous–there’s no dressing involved, and the bright lemon juice adds such a great tang to the richness of the meat and potatoes.
Check out my frightening hand. And why is the juice rocketing towards the right?
Anyway, if you chose to make eggs, add one poached or fried egg per plate.
I love my runny yolk.
The greens and lemon are a perfect complement for the heavier, spicier element of the potatoes and chorizo. I think I’m in love.
Click here for printer-friendly version: Warm Chorizo and New Potato Salad
This doesn’t even deserve the title of salad. Heaven is more like it.
I just discovered chorizo a month ago and I love it. It took me a while to find it in the grocery store, but now that I’m not looking for it I see it everywhere. This salad looks wonderful! Yet another excuse for me to buy more/ 🙂
PS – I love that the brand name of the chorizo you bought was “El Popular”.
I know, isn’t that hilarious? They probably were hoping the brand name would become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This would definitely be on of my favorites, esp. on a hot day when you just want to make a one course meal…I too, had to deal with the Mexican chorizo for a recipe and I did not like working with it. But, you gotta do what ya gotta do with what you got!! Right now Larry and I are enjoying an abondance of tapas right here in Madrid..along with the wonderful coffee, beer, clara for me, tinto de verano, and all the wonderful smells, sights and sounds of the city.
Oh Vicki!! I’m so jealous . . . I miss claras! I miss Spanish coffee!
This is the kind of chorizo we have–I don’t think we have the hard stuff either. I’ve got a half package in my freezer right now. It was sitting there patiently waiting for this recipe, and now there will be much rejoicing when I make this with it. Thank you!
La idea de la ensalada está fenomenal…ahora, ¡no puedo imaginarme como es el sabor de ese chorizo mejicano…que parece una salchicha alemana,ja! Ya te enviamos unos cuantos chorizos españoles para que te salga la receta mas a tu gusto…
Besos Jenna!
Uf, el chorizo mejicano no se parece para NADA al chorizo español, pero al final la ensalada resultó muy buena. Ojalá cosas como chorizo, jamón serrano y morcilla fuesen más fáciles de encontrar por aquí!
Morcilla!! Aunque el cerdo sea de espana y lo maten en sevilla, siempre sera negra la morcilla!
Is that right? I think that’s what my dad used to say in his ‘Spanish from Spain’ accent whenever we ate morcilla. LOL
Wow, I’d never heard that rhyme before! But morcilla is definitely black. Mmmm, a little morcilla on a nice piece of crusty bread while you’re having a beer . . . nothing like it!
Um, yes mam. Runny yolks (especially on THIS SALAD) are the bees knees.
Love.
Wow, this looks great! I love how your recipes introduce me into different (but good) recipes that I wouldn’t normally think of myself! I’ve gotta try this!
oooooh sounds great! p.s. i love the brand name of the chorizo. hilarious!
cho-ri-Zo! cho-ri-ZO!
yum.
I love the warm and cold combinations in this salad. Chorizo and potatoes are a match made in heaven! Great blog 🙂
I used mexican chorizo once and it’s soooooo not the same as real spanish chorizo. I wish I knew where to get real chorizo in Tulsa. =(
Oh and may I say that is a beautiful poached egg. I wish I knew how to make them that perfect. hint hint.
Haha! You are so subtle, my dear . . . =)
” Mmmm, a little morcilla on a nice piece of crusty bread while you’re having a beer . . . nothing like it! ”
Oooohhhhh. I agree!
Oh wow, this sounds absolutely fantastic! I love the addition of the egg yolk. I’m sure that would tame the spiciness a bit. 🙂
Now, this is what I call a salad! Yummy! This sounds fantastic!! 🙂
You killed me with the egg…PERFECTO!
looks absolutely delicious!
Oh wow, two of my favorite things- Chorizo and potatoes at the same place and even better in a salad so I don;t even have to take a guilty trip eating that 🙂
I love that egg on top! A must-try!
I made this! Despite it being on lettuce, it really made me think of breakfast food. I guess b/c it’s sausage (albeit Mexican sausage), potatoes, and an egg. It was really good! My hubby was so ecstatic that he was eating meat and potatoes for dinner, he didn’t even care that it was on top of lettuce. lol
Yay! I’m glad you and Dennis liked it! I have some potatoes and sausage in the fridge at this very moment, so it’s going to happening very soon again on our dinner table as well.
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