Costa Vida Sweet Pork Salad–part of a tasty birthday meal at our house. How many of you do birthday dinners for family members? That is usually my gift to them because I try to prepare a meal that is either unique to them or a favorite request. Our daughter turned 30 a couple of days ago and she was craving some Costa Vida. I was glad to provide this meal because I haven’t had any Costa Vida for quite a while. All the components of this salad are delicious and could stand on their own, but combined? Oh my goodness gracious. So, so good.
I will be sharing the various recipes in my next few posts, but today we get the sweet pork portion. So stay tuned for the Cilantro Lime Rice, Garlic Black Beans, and the Creamy Tomatillo Dressing. I will add links to this post later for these recipes.
The recipe I found suggests the following ingredients for your salad: 1 head romaine lettuce chopped, Sweet Pork, Cilantro Lime Rice, Garlic Black Beans, 2 tomatoes chopped (I would suggest coring the tomatoes), Creamy Tomatillo Dressing, guacamole or avocado slices, and crispy tortilla strips. I used Mrs. Cubbison’s Tri-Color strips.
Here’s a fun thing to do: I bought some disposable aluminum cake tins so that I could serve up this Costa Vida meal more authentically. They were less than $1 for a pack of 3. I wonder what else we could do to make this more of a Costa Vida experience? Any ideas?
I found this copycat recipe for Costa Vida Sweet Pork Salad from a Google search. Thank you to The Traveling Circus.
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Costa Vida Sweet Pork Salad
Description
Here’s the recipe for the sweet pork in this delicious Costa Vida salad. Try it with tortillas or any other time you need some good, sweet pulled pork.
Ingredients
- 3–4 lb. pork butt
- 3 cans Coke, divided
- 1 1/4 cups brown sugar, divided
- dash of garlic salt
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 can diced green chilies
- 10 ounce can of red enchilada sauce
Instructions
- Combine pork, half of the Coke, garlic salt, and 1/4 cup of brown sugar in a Ziplock bag. Marinate for a few hours or overnight.
- Drain marinade and place pork in a slow cooker. Add 1/2 can of Coke, garlic salt, and 1/4 cup of water. Cook on high for about 3 hours or low for 5-6 hours. Remove meat from slow cooker and shred. Drain liquid.
- In a food processor or blender, blend together remaining Coke, green chilies, enchilada sauce, and remaining brown sugar. Place pork back in the slow cooker. Cover with sauce and cook on low heat for 2 hours. You could also cook on high for one hour.
