Southwestern Chopped Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing
A tex-mex style salad with an incredibly creamy Greek yogurt cilantro dressing that will knock your socks off!
I’m happy to report that after 11 days into 2014, I am still well into my salad phase – BBQ chicken salad, Asian cobb salad, kale salad, you name it. But with a bunch of cilantro left over in the fridge, I just had to make a cilantro-type dressing. And boy am I glad I did because this is one of the creamiest, most flavorful dressings I have ever made.
Not to mention, the dressing comes together so quickly and easily with the help of a food processor. Simply drop everything into your handy dandy food processor – I love using my Magimix for this – pulse, and that’s it!
You can definitely adjust the amount of olive oil for a a thinner dressing. I didn’t want mine too thick so that’s what the recipe here reflects. Either way, this goes so perfectly in this tex-mex style salad loaded with corn, beans, tomatoes, avocado and tortilla strips. It’s quickly become a favorite of ours, and we’ve had it almost every day this week!
Southwestern Chopped Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing
Ingredients
For the cilantro lime dressing
- 1 cup loosely packed cilantro, stems removed
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
For the salad
- 5 cups chopped romaine lettuce
- ½ cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- ½ cup canned corn kernels, drained
- ½ cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- 1 avocado, halved, seeded, peeled and diced
- ¼ cup tortilla strips, for garnish
Instructions
for the cilantro lime dressing
- Combine cilantro, Greek yogurt, garlic and lime juice in the bowl of a food processor. With the motor running, add olive oil and vinegar in a slow stream until emulsified; set aside.
for the salad
- To assemble the salad, place romaine lettuce in a large bowl; top with tomatoes, corn, black beans and cilantro. Pour the dressing on top of the salad and gently toss to combine. Stir in avocado.
- Serve immediately, garnished with tortillas strips, if desired.
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This is one of me and my moms absolute favourite salads. I’ve made it probably 20 times in the past two years. One tip I have is if you wash your cilantro, make sure it’s nice and dry before you make the dressing or your dressing will not be as good. I learned the hard way.
My dressing was really bitter tasting and very potent. Left a terrible after taste. Had to pour it out. I can’t figure out why? Any thoughts? Could the garlic do that. My cilantro was fresh. I was so disappointed bc i know something was off.
My guess is that your olive oil was rancid… Rancid oil can give things a terrible taste. (It’s a similar problem with rancid nuts and I know from experience that rancid ingredients totally ruin food… Strong, bitter, horrible aftertaste.)
I swear I could live off of all your recipes!! I love this salad!! Do you have a recipe foe a cilantro chimichurri, that would last a few days in the fridge? Thanks for all of your recipes!
I tried the recipe, loved it. Thank you
Made it according to the recipe. Beautiful ingredients and I had high hopes. Maybe my cloves of garlic were unusually large, because I found the dressing waaaaay too strong of garlic.
The only thing missing from this recipe is HEAT! To really enjoy it, add two jalapeno peppers, finely diced to the salad, and some Texas Pete or other hot sauce to taste to the dressing. Ole!
Hi Chungah! Your website of recipes is great! This cilantro lime dressing is perfect – even though I did substitute mayonais bc/ I didn’t have plain Greek yogurt – not as healthy, but delicious. I love to cook and am constantly searching and googling for recipes and your site has become a trusted “go to” website. You really always nail it! Thank you!
What a wonderful life you live – cooking, blogging, California and your dog!!!! I’m so envious.
You’re so sweet, thank you for your feedback Jen!
I made this last night for dinner and it was super yummy! I added chopped red bell pepper because I had it on hand.
Great! Thanks for sharing with us!
Can we substitute the greek yogurt with a dairy free yogurt or perhaps even do without it? I’m going dairy free!
A dairy-free yogurt would be a great substitute!
How many people will this serve ?
Thank you!
About 2 servings.
Drag out the food processor-you won’t regret it…the dressing is amazing! Re calorie concerns, I found ~3tbs of dressing was adequate and used a few crushed baked tortilla scoops. Topped with sautéed chicken breast strips to make it a meal – heaven!!! Will have for the 3rd day in a row today – thank you! And thanks to other readers for sharing tip on storing cilantro in a glass of water-genius! PS I may add chile powder and jalapeños in the dressing next time.
Is there a substitute for the avocado, or can it be left out completely? I don’t like the taste of avocado.
You can omit.
One word: WOW!!!! This dressing is AMAZING! I just can not explain how amazing it tastes. I will make it in a bottle and store it in my fridge. Thank you for sharing it – one of the best recipes I’ve come through ever.
The salad is delicious. Thanks for sharing.
Looks amazing! Does this salad work with plan yogurt? I don’t have have Greek on hand.
Yes, absolutely.
I just doubled this recipe for a dinner party and it was great. All I added was some cumin to the dressing. Delicious!
Just made this salad for dinner and it was delicious. My only modification – I added red onion.
Thank you. I will make a lot more often and the recipe share with my friends.
Is nobody else concerned that this is a nearly 600 calorie salad?
It’s a 300 calorie salad. Serving size is TWO!
Calories are listed per serving. So yes, almost 600 calories.
Do you think it would be okay to sub guacamole for the avocado? and how could I prepare this for 15 people ahead of time? Just keep the various ingredients separately and have them put it together??
Yes and yes!
Just made this salad for dinner; wife loved it!!!