This colorful Black Bean Taco Salad is a flavorful fiesta for your mouth made with lettuce, black beans, veggies, cheddar cheese, tortilla strips, and a healthy taco seasoned dressing!
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Happy Cinco de Mayo! Working from home on a daily basis, the days usually escape me anyway. But with everything that's going on now, I seriously have no idea what day it is or what time it is anymore. So when I finally decided to break out my paper content planner again, I realized "Oh shoot! Cinco de Mayo is coming up!"
And here we are and I haven't scheduled a damn thing related to this day. Unless you count the Easy Buffalo Jackfruit Taquitos, which I didn't plan for Cinco de Mayo. I just really wanted taquitos.
Lucky for us, I remembered this salad when I was going through my brainstorming notebook where I jot down ideas for future posts. The recipe is simple, you probably already have the ingredients on hand, and it's healthy. So if you're anything like me and totally forgot that today was Cinco de Mayo, you could easily whip this up for dinner tonight and no one would know that you just added it to the menu!
Black Bean Taco Salad
Since Cinco de Mayo has landed on Taco Tuesday this year, we've gotta do it up properly and make something taco inspired. I mean, go ahead and live it up big with a proper taco! But since I had all of these fresh ingredients on hand (hallelujah for fresh produce!), I'm paying homage to the taco - that spicy little handheld gem of a meal - in salad form.
Get your base of fresh and crunchy leafy greens. Then, add some black beans for protein (you could toss in some chicken or steak, if you so desire). After that, add some sliced peppers, green onion, olives, tomatoes, corn, and shredded cheddar cheese. Toss it all together with a creamy salad dressing made with taco seasoning, plain Greek yogurt (or you could use sour cream), and salsa. Top it off with some tortilla strips for a light and flavorful, plant based salad!
I made my own crispy tortilla strips in the air fryer. It's super easy to do! Use a pizza cutter or kitchen scissors to cut corn tortillas into strips. Then, spritz them with a little cooking spray. Pop them in the air fryer for about 4-5 minutes, or until they're crispy, and you've got some tasty tortilla strips to top salads and soups with!
Black Bean Taco Salad
Ingredients
For the salad:
- 4 cups lettuce
- 1 cup black beans rinsed and drained
- 1 cup grape tomatoes halved
- 1/2 cup sliced mini bell peppers
- 1/2 cup sweet corn kernels
- 1/2 cup black olives
- 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1/4 cup tortilla strips
- 2 green onions sliced
For the dressing:
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 tbsp. taco seasoning
- 2 tbsp. salsa
Instructions
For the salad:
- Place the lettuce in a salad bowl.
- Top with black beans, tomatoes, peppers, corn, olives, cheddar cheese, tortilla strips, and green onions.
For the dressing:
- Add Greek yogurt, taco seasoning, and salsa to a mason jar. Stir or add the lid and give it a good shake.
- Spoon over the taco salad.
If you love a creamy salad dressing, you'll love this creamy, taco seasoned dressing! It's full of flavor and clings to every lettuce leaf! Throw everything in a mason jar and give it a good shake. Then, when you're finished dressing your salad, you can toss the lid back on and store it in the fridge!
Now, all you need is an icy margarita and you've got a Cinco de Mayo party for your mouth!
Did you make this Black Bean Taco Salad recipe? Share your pics on Instagram using the hashtag #holokahome. Don’t forget to tag me @holokahome!
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