Mississippi Cornbread Salad

I've veering away from my TV spot recipes to share a great recipe I discovered at a church potluck. I love potluck dinners. You get such variety and rarely does anyone refuse to share a recipe-that is, if they used a recipe! This salad has an unusual ingredient - crumbled cornbread!

I just served this at a party at our house this past weekend. You can make it a day ahead if you make your own dressing and it goes together very quickly too. I discovered real bacon bits are a great substitute for frying and draining bacon. Ok, I guess I better get the recipe here so these comments make more sense.

Mississippi Cornbread Salad

1 pkg. Jiffy Cornbread mix, prepared with pkg. directions, baked and cooled
10 slices bacon, fried and crumbled
Shredded cheddar cheese
1 1b. can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 can mexi-corn, drained (regular corn can be substituted)
5 green onions, sliced (or about ¼ c. chopped onion)
2 tomatoes, diced, drain away juice
1 green pepper, diced

Ranch dressing: (You won’t need to use all of this in the recipe.)
1 pkg. Hidden Valley dressing mix
1 c. sour cream
1 c. mayonnaise
(You can substitute bottled dressing but the thicker consistency above keeps the salad from getting soggy-if you think the dressing is too thick to spread, thin with a little milk)

Crumble the cornbread, then layer half of each ingredient as follows: cornbread, bacon, cheese, beans & corn, fresh veggies then a layer of dressing. Repeat the layers, finishing with dressing and top with additional shredded cheese. Chill until serving.

When I doubled the recipe the first time, I used only a single recipe of dressing. The amount of dressing is really a personal choice. The amount of fresh veggies is also personal choice-I like lots of tomatoes and peppers but do remove the juicy seeds portion of the tomatoes. It looks beautiful layered in a clear glass bowl, but for serving ease, I like to put it in a glass 9 x 13” dish. A double recipe filled that pan and a 9 x 9” pan. Because of more surface area with these dishes, I used 1 ½ recipes of the dressing. I have also used yogurt in place of some of the mayo for a tangier and lighter taste.

Be sure you grab a dressing mix and not the ranch dip mix. The dip mix has a thickening agent that tends to keep the prepared dressing on top instead of blending a little more with the other salad ingredients.

Enjoy!