Tofu Salpicon (Vegan Salpicon de Pollo)

Salpicon de pollo (something along the lines of “chicken splash”) is a popular salad in Lima, prepared regularly in many houses, especially when there are a lot of leftover ingredients in the kitchen, or simply to add more veggies to the daily routine. Peruvian food is heavy on the carbs, so light dishes like this bring a rest from that when needed. This recipe does include some potatoes in it (did you really think we would go 100% sans carbs?), but as you will soon find out, they end up being almost hidden in the mountain of colorful fresh and cooked veggies served along with them.

One of the good things about making a chicken salpicon, is that you can adjust it to whichever vegetables you have in the kitchen at any given moment. Want to add some broccoli? Sure! Prefer cauliflower? Why not! How about skipping the tomatoes and adding green beans instead? Go for it! As a matter of fact, to prepare this salad, I put together 2 different recipes of salpicon, picking what I liked best in each, and leaving out what I didn’t want to include (such as the chicken, because I’m a vegetarian).

Ok, so maybe you think leaving the chicken out is taking it a bit too far. After all, this appetizer’s name has the word chicken in it. But you know how we love to turn everything vegetarian in this blog, and it usually turns out pretty awesome! If you don’t believe us, check out our arroz con pollo sin pollo (rice with chicken, without chicken), or our veggie lomo saltado, which has portobello mushrooms instead of beef.

Other variations to this dish: add mayonnaise along with the lime juice and olive oil as a dressing, sprinkle with 1/4 cup chopped white onion, or use faux-chicken strips instead of tofu.