Good For You Taco Salad

Found this recipe on Recipezaar. Do I find recipes anywhere else?!



Good for You Taco Salad (Recipe #251415)

Ingredient amounts are approximate. There are lots of optional ingredients, depending on what you like. Feel free to substitute an equal amount of bottled vinaigrette for the oil and vinegar.

by Maito

Dressing

• 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice (or more)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or any other kind vinegar
• 1 pinch garlic powder
• 1 pinch ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons salsa
• 2 tablespoons nonfat yogurt (optional) or nonfat sour cream (optional)

Salad

• 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed (you can also use black or any other type of beans)
• 1/2-1 avocados, diced
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cup cilantro, coarsely chopped
• 5 ounces romaine lettuce or butter lettuce
• 2 carrots, sliced
• baked corn tortilla chips

Optional toppings

• very lean ground turkey, cooked with (optional)
• taco seasoning (optional)
• basil (optional)
• green onion (optional) or chives, chopped (optional)
• toasted pepitas (optional)
• black olives (optional)
• low-fat cheese, shredded (optional)
• jalapeno, seeded and minced (optional)
• 1 can corn, drained and rinsed

Directions:

1. Mix dressing ingredients.
2. Put all desired salad ingredients in a large glass bowl. Toss with dressing (you may not need all of it) and top with baked chips. Serve additional chips on the side.

***

This salad was really good and really easy. I will definitely be making it again!

When making this recipe I added 1/2 lb. ground hamburger cooked with taco seasoning, a can of black beans, 2 green onions, 1 can of corn, about 1/2-3/4 of a can of olives. I also omitted the carrots in the salad recipe, and used Roma tomatoes, rather than cherry tomatoes. I also added more cilantro than it called for. Only 1/2 a cup of cilantro?! That's barely enough to nasty your mouth! We like our cilantro! In the dressing recipe I doubled the amount of fresh lime juice. We felt that it could have used even more, so if you like lime don't be shy with the juice.

While I was working on the salad, my husband thought it would be fun to try and make taco bowls out of tortillas by molding them in a glass bowl with an empty can in the middle and dunking them in the deep fryer. They didn't turn out too bad! Not perfect, but they looked kinda festive.

So, for the record, this taco salad was really, really yummy and easy! 5 stars!