Loaded chopped taco salad made with fresh greens piled high with black beans, corn, avocado, radishes, cheddar cheese, and pico de gallo. Topped with crunchy homemade seasoned tortilla chips and finished with a creamy salsa taquera dressing for a touch of heat.

The combination that taste so good in between hard shells, taste just as good as a salad. It makes the perfection adding to mix things in your weekly meal lineup. Let’s face it, who else could eat tacos almost everyday? You just fell a little better making it because well, it’s a salad! HAHA

This salad is a keeper. Not just a plain garden salad with leafy greens, cucumber, and tomatoes. It’s so much more. All the taco taste with a lot less calories, and vegetarian. You could add a grilled chicken breast or some taco seasoned ground beef, but honestly it’s very filling! Of course, there is some cooking involved. These steps are what give the salad all its taco like goodness and taste.

SO WHAT’S THERE TO COOK?

Corn- chop the kernels right off the cob with a knife and toss em all in a pan with seasonings for super tasty grilled corn.
Tortilla crisps– no need for store bought when its very easy to make them yourself.
Dressing– cooking the salsa adds more flavour profiles, for richer and deeper tastes with some sweetness to the tomatoes as well as revives the chilies for that smoky touch. Skipping this step will leave you with much milder tasting dressing.

If you’re looking for more amazing recipes and something similar- give these a try! Baja fish tacos,

MAKE AHEAD

A perfect make-ahead salad. We recommend adding the homemade tortillas strip only when consuming and toss everything together except the leafy greens to keep it nice and fresh. Alternatively, you could substitute half and half romaine with green cabbage which would hold better overnight as a meal prep and still give you that crunchy taco salad taste.

We hope you enjoy this recipe! If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it on Instagram! We love to see what you come up with. #thecommunalfeast Follow along our social media account on instagram for quick videos on how our recipes come together!

Print Recipe

taco salad

Loaded chopped taco salad made with fresh greens piled high with black beans, corn, avocado, radishes, cheddar cheese, and pico de gallo. Topped with crunchy homemade seasoned tortilla chips and finished with a creamy salsa taquera dressing for a touch of heat.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time25 minutes mins

Course: Salads

Cuisine: Mexican

Servings: 4

Author: the communal feast

Ingredients

• 4 cups romaine chopped
• 1 cup black beans canned rinsed + drained
• 1 1/2 cup corn kernels removed from cob
• 1/3 cup radishes thinly sliced
• 1 ripe avocado sliced
• 3/4 cup cheddar cheese grated
• 1 cup pico de gallo see notes
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup mayo
• 1 lime
• 4-6 white corn tortillas
• 1 TBS chipotle chili
• 1 TBS smoked paprika
• 1 TBS olive oil
• Salsa Taquera dressing:
• 2 roma tomatoes roughly chopped
• 1 small yellow onion roughly chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 3 arbol chilies seeds removed
• pinch of salt

Instructions

• To make the dressing: In a medium size pan, heat half the oil. Once hot, add the tomatoes and onions. Cook stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Once cooked down a bit, add the garlic, and season with salt. Allow to cook 1 minute and add the chilies and cook an additional minute. Transfer all the contents of the pan to a blender and process until smooth. Add the remaining oil. Mix in the mayo, sour cream and juice from half a lime. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Add more sour cream or mayo if needed.
• In a medium sized pan, heat 1 tsp olive oil over medium heat. Once hot, add the corn kernels to the pan and stir occasionally for a few minutes until they begin to cook. Season with half paprika and chipotle chili. Continue to cook until the corn begins to turn a deeper yellow colour and reduces in size. Roughly 4 minutes. Remove and set aside.
• To the same pan, heat the remaining olive oil on medium-low heat. Fold the tortillas into a quarter and chop into thin strips. Add the tortillas to the pan, careful not to clump them together as they will stick together. toss to coat in the oil and cook stirring occasionally for a few minutes. Once the tortillas begin to crisp, season with remaining spices and continue to cook until nice and golden and crunchy, about 5 minutes.
• To make the salad: In a large shallow bowl, combine chopped lettuce, corn, black beans, radishes, cheese and pico. Add 1-2 TBS of the dressing tossing to coat. Divide evenly into bowls, and finish each salad off with avocado, a drizzle of dressing and top with the crunchy tortillas.
• Serve immediately.

Notes

Homemade pico: Combine 1 chopped tomatoes, 1 heaping TBS white onion finely chopped, cilantro and juice from half a lime in a bowl. Season with a bit of salt and pepper and set aside.