Southwestern Chopped Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing
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A tex-mex style salad with an incredibly creamy Greek yogurt cilantro dressing that will knock your socks off!
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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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Omg I am So MAD at myself! Earlier today I pitched this HUGE head of cilantro. I had bought it for another recipe, I figured there was nothing I was going to do w/ that much, it was about 1-2 days before it would have gone bad & I was taking out the trash and out it went. And now i see this dressing. I will be buying more just to make it if you say it’s one of the best dressings ever.
Gorgeous lighting and great salad!
Oh man, I wish I had shared this sooner – you’d love this, Averie!
NEVER pitch cilantro. I chop it up and put it in a freezer bag in the freezer. It’s not as good as fresh later, but it’s better than the freeze dried stuff and it would work beautifully in something like this. 🙂
I keep my cilantro in a glass of water in the fridge. Trim the stems and replace water every once in a while and it stays fresh for a while 🙂
Awesome Tip! thanks for sharing that!
I can testify to the efficacy of this method for most fresh herbs. I’ve had parsley and cilantro last more than a month in the fridge when kept stem-side-down in a jar of water.
Making this for dinner tonight, I’m so excited! Going to add some mexican spiced chicken though 🙂