Southwest Tortilla Salad with Creamy Avocado Salsa Dressing
An easy-to-put-together meal prep lunch option for a superb tortilla salad piled high with veggies, pepper jack cheese and pepitas served with a creamy and spicy dressing.
Servings: 6 servings
Ingredients
For the Salad:
- 1-2 heads Romaine lettuce chopped
- 1 can corn kernels or use fresh from 1 ear of sweet corn
- 1 red bell pepper chopped
- 1 cup cucumber chopped
- 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes halved
- 1 can black beans rinsed and drained
- 1/3 cup roasted and salted pepitas or sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup pepper jack cheese grated, or more to taste
- Tortilla Strips
For the Dressing:
- 1 small avocado peeled and sliced
- 1 small jalapeno seeded and roughly chopped
- 1 clove garlic peeled
- 1/4 cup Cilantro less if using a paste
- 1/4 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup smooth salsa
- 1/4 cup Milk plus more for thinning
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1/2 tsp. sugar
- juice from 1 lime
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. Cumin
- 1/8 tsp. black pepper
- 1/8 tsp. smoked paprika
- Hot sauce to taste (optional)
Instructions
- Add all of the Creamy Avocado Salsa Dressing ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth, scraping the sides as needed. Add hot sauce and additional salt and pepper to taste. Add additional milk to thin to desired consistency if needed. Chill in the refrigerator.
- Add salad ingredients to a large bowl (or individual portions if making as part of meal prep. Leave out cheese if not serving immediately, and leave out tortillas, then toss to combine.
- Toss salad with desired amount of dressing or drizzle dressing over individual servings if not eating all the salad immediately.
- Garnish salad with tortilla strips and freshly cracked salt and pepper.
