Southwestern Salad with Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette
If you visit my blog, you know I really love to cook and eat Mexican food. I prepared this delicious and easy Southwestern salad with cilantro lime vinaigrette recipe to pair with a flank steak, spicy pinto beans, tortilla chips, and salsa I was serving for dinner. This easy Mexican salad recipe has a great combination of textures and flavors, and we all loved it, especially my kids.
Southwestern Salad with Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette
Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette:
- ½ cup of chopped cilantro
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1-2 tbsp fresh lime juice
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar OR red wine vinegar
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- Honey, to taste
- ½ tsp oregano
- Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Salad:
- 4 cups of romaine lettuce, chopped
- 1 avocado, diced
- A handful of grape tomatoes
- 2 small baby bell peppers – red, yellow, or orange, diced
- 2 green onions, sliced
- ½ cup black beans
- ½ cup sweet frozen corn, thawed
- 2 tbsp cotija cheese
- 1 tbsp raw or toasted pumpkin seeds
- 1 handful of tortilla strips for salads
How to Make a Southwestern Salad with Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette
Make the vinaigrette by using an immersion blender (or blender) to blend the cilantro, oil, lime juice, vinegar, garlic, honey, oregano, sea salt, and freshly cracked black pepper to taste. Set aside for 30 minutes to allow flavors time to mingle, if possible.
Make the salad by placing the lettuce, avocado, tomatoes, bell peppers, green onions, black beans, corn, cotija cheese, pumpkin seeds, and tortilla strips.
Top serve, drizzle some cilantro lime vinaigrette to taste, over the top, and toss to coat it evenly.
Serve immediately. Enjoy.
Equipment
Ingredients
Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette:
- ½ cup of chopped cilantro
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1-2 tbsp fresh lime juice
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar OR red wine vinegar
- 1 clove garlic minced
- Honey to taste
- ½ tsp oregano
- Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
Salad:
- 4 cups of romaine lettuce chopped
- 1 avocado diced
- A handful of grape tomatoes
- 2 small baby bell peppers - red yellow, or orange, diced
- 2 green onions sliced
- ½ cup black beans
- ½ cup sweet frozen corn thawed
- 2 tbsp cotija cheese
- 1 tbsp raw or toasted pumpkin seeds
- 1 handful of tortilla strips for salads to taste
Instructions
- Make the vinaigrette by using an immersion blender (or blender) to blend the cilantro, oil, lime juice, vinegar, garlic, honey, oregano, sea salt, and freshly cracked black pepper to taste. Set aside for 30 minutes to allow flavors time to mingle, if possible.
- Prepare the salad by placing the lettuce, avocado, tomatoes, bell peppers, green onions, black beans, corn, cotija cheese, pumpkin seeds, and tortilla strips.
- Top serve, drizzle some cilantro lime vinaigrette to taste, over the top, and toss to coat it evenly.
- Serve immediately. Enjoy.
This looks delicious. I would like to make it to go with our Mexican-ish Mother’s Day lunch this coming weekend, and I was wondering if it would work well to add the entire batch of dressing to the salad and toss immediately before serving (as opposed to each person spooning dressing onto their individual salads). I think this would make it easier for people to dish up their plates, and the I wouldn’t feel obligated to bring several other dressings for people to choose from if the salad and dressing are already mixed before serving. Any thoughts or suggestions?
Melissa,
When I serve a large amount of people, I always toss the salad with a small amount of dressing then serve more on the side for those who like lots of dressing. I hope this helps.
Enjoy!
Cheers,
Pam
Very helpful–I’ll go easy on the initial mixing in case some people don’t like a lot of dressing. Thanks for your speedy reply!
I just made the vinaigrette and this recipe absolutely NAILED what I was looking for. I just used a pinch of mixed herbs instead of oregano, added some lime zest and a little bit of sugar, but that’s just me being unable to follow recipes! Very good, thank you!
This salad was delish! I used dried Mexican oregano (rubbed between hands to make it a coarse powder) and added about 2 teaspoons of honey.
I made this salad to go with White Bean and Chicken Chili. It is one of the best salads I have evered had! I had never made my own salad dressing before and this was so easy and actually fun! I have made the salad twice since then and added chopped chicken. Delicious again! My husband can’t tolerate lettuce so I made him one with baby spinach. He loved it too! Thanks for this recipe!! You are one of my favorite food bloggers and your recipes are very reliable!
How many people will this recipe serve?
I usually serve 4 people this salad with extra dressing left over.
This salad looks delicious, so if I wanted to make this for a large party, would I double it or would I need even more than that, if you serve 4? Julie
I grilled up some skirt steak, Arrachera style, and sliced it for over the top. Simply amazing. Thank you.
Made this dinner with friends and all agreed one of best salads they have had. All commented on the very tasty dressing. It also looked beautiful! Thank you for sharing.
Pam:
Thanks for this recipe. A church group had a retreat day today and everyone was bringing a dish to pass. The main course was “taco” lasagna. I searched the web and found this recipe for a salad to go with the taco lasagna. It was the perfect salad. I did substitute a regular yellow and red pepper because I already had these and needed to use them up before they went bad. Also, they did not have the cotija cheese where I grocery shop so I used Supremo Queso Fresco (a fresh crumbling Mexican cheese). I also substitued olive oil for the canola oil. The salad is delicious!
This is the best salad that I have ever had!!! Thank you!!! Looking forward to your other recipes!!
Does the Avocado have any special needs to keep it from turning? Should I toss it with lime juice first?
Norma, Because avocado is so fragile, I add it right before tossing with the vinaigrette and serving.
Cheers,
Pam
you’re in point of fact a good webmaster. The site loading speed
is amazing. It sort of feels that you are doing any unique trick.
Furthermore, The contents are masterpiece. you’ve
performed a great job on this matter!
I’m impressed, I have to admit. Seldom do I encounter a blog that’s equally educative and engaging, and without a doubt, you
have hit the nail on the head. The problem is an issue that too few men and women are
speaking intelligently about. Now i’m very happy I found this during my
search for something relating to this.
Heⅼlo! This iѕ kind of offf topic Ƅut I need some һelp fгom аn established blog.
Iѕ it ᴠery difficult tto set up your owwn blog? Ι’m noot very techincal bսt
I cɑn figure thіngs out pretty fаst. Ӏ’m thinking aboᥙt creating my
own but I’m not sᥙre hеre to start. Do you have аny tips օr suggestions?
Аppreciate it
The function of the recipe is usually to give a series of steps and ingredients which, when followed, boost the chance of a
palatable meal. The main reason because of this change is really because content creation, homework and dissertations makes students more comfortable with
comprehending the subject matter and much more capable to apply theoretical concepts into practical
scenario. And when someone CREATES a decision for many years, it’s infinitely harder to switch that perception.
Hi to every body, it’s my first pay a visit of this web site; this weblog consists of
awesome and truly good stuff in favor of visitors.
This salad was absolutely delicious! I added a tiny bit of sugar to the dressing but other than that I made it exactly as written. Absolutely wonderful!!! Thank you!
Simply want to say your article is as astonishing.
The clearness in your post is just excellent and i can assume you are an expert
on this subject. Fine with your permission let me to
grab your feed to keep updated with forthcoming post.
Thanks a million and please carry on the gratifying work.
I’m no longer certain the place you’re getting your information, however good topic.
I needs to spend some time studying much more or working out more.
Thanks for magnificent information I was searching for this
information for my mission.
Have you ever made this dressing the night before? Does it sit well?
Laura,
No, I’ve always made it fresh but I have a feeling it would be just fine if you made it the night before. Let me know how it turns out.
Pam
What’s up, I wish for to subscribe for this blog to get most up-to-date updates, thus where can i do it
please assist.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on mexican dishes.
Regards
Unquestionably believe that which you said.
Your favorite reason appeared to be on the internet the simplest
thing to be aware of. I say to you, I certainly
get annoyed while people consider worries that they plainly
do not know about. You managed to hit the nail
upon the top as well as defined out the whole thing without
having side-effects , people could take a signal. Will probably be
back to get more. Thanks
Give it time to dry before making the next coat.
Hey very cool website!! Man .. Beautiful .. Superb ..
I’ll bookmark your web site and take the feeds also?
I am satisfied to find so many useful information right here
in the submit, we need work out extra strategies in this regard, thank you for sharing.
. . . . .
Chinese marble tiles and slabs such as Irish Brown marble, St Laurent Marble, Silver Dragon marble
and Silk Georgette Marble etc
Made in China
For more visit http://www.morestonemarble.com
Superb, what a web site it is! This weblog provides useful data to us,
keep it up.
This page really has all of the info I needed concerning
this subject and didn’t know who to ask.
Hello everyone, it’s my first pay a visit at this web page,
and piece of writing is truly fruitful in support
of me, keep up posting such articles.
Thanks for sharing