Southwestern Chopped Salad

This salad makes an appearance in our home on a regular basis. I love a good salad, but what I love even more is a salad that will serve as the main dish. This Southwestern Chopped Salad is full of flavor, and it gives you plenty of protein and veggies in one bowl.

I discovered this delicious and filling salad over at Life in the Lofthouse. She made hers with chicken breast, so I adapted the salad for our home and used garbanzo beans in place of the chicken. If you would prefer to use chicken, just use 3 cups of cooked and diced chicken breast in place of the garbanzo beans.

This is a little more prep work considering the chopping and dicing, but it is well worth the work. I tend to go  very light on dressings, and I will often eat a salad with no dressing at all. However, the dressing on this salad is an exception. The taco ranch dressing is a must, for it takes this salad from great to another level of delicious!

Print Recipe

Southwestern Chopped Salad

A flavorful salad full of veggies and protein that can be served as the main dish.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr

Total Time1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Course: Salad

Servings: 4 -6

Ingredients

• Salad
• 3 Romaine hearts washed & chopped
• 1 green bell pepper diced
• 4 Roma tomatoes deseeded & diced
• 4 green onions sliced
• 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro chopped
• 1 15 oz can corn drained
• 1 15 oz can black beans rinsed and drained
• 1 16 oz can garbanzo beans rinsed and drained
• 2 cups crushed tortilla chips
• 
  
• Taco Ranch Dressing
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3 T ranch seasoning
• 2 T taco seasoning
• 1 T fresh lime juice
• 3 T milk

Instructions

• Make the dressing first. In a medium bowl, whisk the mayonnaise, sour cream, ranch seasoning, taco seasoning, lime juice and milk until thoroughly combined. Add more milk if you want a thinner consistency, but the dressing needs to be thick enough to coat the salad. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
• For the salad: In a large bowl, add the bell pepper, tomatoes, green onions, cilantro, corn, black beans and garbanzo beans. Stir to combine. Now add the romaine lettuce and stir the salad to evenly combine all of the ingredients.
• At this point, you can put the salad mixture into individual bowls or continue in the large salad bowl. Pour the desired amount of dressing over the salad and gently stir to coat the salad with the dressing. Mix in the crushed tortilla chip. Serve immediately.
• Enjoy!

Notes

Recipe adapted from: Life In The Lofthouse