Copy Cat Citizen Public House Chopped Salad

 The night before Jordan got married we were in Scottsdale with him.  He wanted to try the Citizen Public House for dinner that night.  It was a small, cozy restaurant and without reservations we could only sit at the bar and eat.  One of their special dishes is a Chopped Salad.  I wanted to get something they were well known for so I order the salad.  It sounded so different and it was.  And it was delicious.  I found the knock off recipe online.  The one ingredient I had to get from Amazon was the freeze-dried corn.  I really wanted to get that one item as I remembered it added so much to the salad.  For the black currants I used the dark red ones. For Les and I a half of recipe was plenty.

Copy Cat Citizen Public House Chopped Salad

Serves 4 generously

Ingredients:

Dressing:

• 1 1/2 cups mayo
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 T. Pecorino Romano cheese
• Juice of 1 large lemon
• 18 basil leaves
• 1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic

Trail mix:

• 1 cup black currants
• 1 cup toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• 3/4 cup ground aged Asiago cheese

Tomato mix:

• 2 cups chopped Roma tomatoes or cherry tomatoes
• 3 T. balsamic vinegar
• 2 T. olive oil
• 4 large basil leaves, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

• 2 cups smoked salmon, flaked or 2 cups grilled pieces of chicken
• 2 1/2 cups freeze-dried corn
• 2 1/2 cups chopped arugula
• 2 1/2 cups cooked Israeli (pearl) couscous

Directions:

1. Combine all dressing ingredients thoroughly in blender and set aside.  
2. Toss all trail mix ingredients together in one bowl.
3. Mix all the tomato mix together in another bowl.
4. To assemble the salads, divide ingredients evenly between four plates and assemble in strips in the following order: salmon/chicken, couscous, arugula, trail mix, corn, and tomato mix.  
5. Serve with dressing on the side or drizzled over the top.