Good for You Taco Salad

Maito's Note:

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.

• Total Time: 15 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 2

Dressing

• 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice (or more)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or 1 tablespoon any other kind vinegar
• 1 pinch garlic powder
• 1 pinch ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons salsa
• 2 tablespoons nonfat yogurt (optional) or 2 tablespoons 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 avocado, diced
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cup cilantro, coarsely chopped
• 5 ounces romaine lettuce or 5 ounces butter lettuce
• 2 carrots, sliced
• baked corn tortilla chips

Optional toppings

• very lean ground turkey, cooked with
• taco seasoning
• basil
• green onions or chives, chopped
• toasted pepitas
• black olives
• low-fat cheese, shredded
• jalapeno, seeded and minced

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.

Reviews

[FLKeysJen]

The creamy, tangy dressing (I used Paul Newman's salsa and lots of lime juice) make this salad! With a pound of ground turkey breast, this can be six meal-sized portions. This is great to have in the fridge for lunches all week - leave the dressing and chips off until just before serving, and add a new item or two every day to keep it interesting!

[Lavender Lynn]

Delayed this two days to buy kidney beans, then forgot to add them! They're important because beans and corn provide a complete protein and they add such a rich color! To preserve colors for the photo, I tossed the dressing with only the lettuce and cilantro and added the colorful toppings afterward; I'd suggest this for serving also. We may have compromised the "healthful" aspect a bit with taco-seasoned ground beef, but the salad was beautiful and delicious and the recipe very adaptable. Made as a prize for Top Favorites of 2009.

[~Nimz~]

We really enjoyed this salad, just didn't much care for the dressing that much. I prefer a mixture of light mayo and taco sauce, but this was a nice change. I used the avocados, cherry tomatoes along with green onions, black olives and jalapenos. Wonderful combination. Just overlooked the kidney beans which would have been great in this. Thanks for sharing. Made for I Recommend Tag Game. :)