A delicious, healthy salad that is filling and you can have on the table in thirty minutes. Let’s go!
When we were making plans to meet up with our family down the shore last weekend, I offered to make Saturday night dinner. Mostly because I feel like it’s my small way of contributing to our weekend, and I had just seen a recipe for a Southwestern Chopped Salad that would make excellent use of the leftover grilled corn I had in my refrigerator.
Two birds, one stone.
I found the original recipe from the Damn Delicious blog, but made a few tiny changes along the way. The biggest change was probably to use grilled corn instead of canned corn. Because when you’re in the thick of peak corn season, why wouldn’t you?
If you *have* grilled corn already, you can make quick work of this salad easily. It’s just a question of cutting the corn off the cobs. I set up my daughter, Madeline, and my niece, Sophie, and gave them that job. They could chatter about their day and be a huge help to me.
And the bonus?
My oldest, Nick, did all the other work, from washing and chopping all the ingredients to make the homemade dressing. 
Teamwork at its finest.
Filling salads like this are such a great thing to have in your repertoire when it comes to the hot, hot, hot months of the summer. Who wants to heat up their kitchen or spend hours toiling away over a hot stove?
With all the ingredients, and a creamy dressing that uses Greek yogurt as its base, this is a nice summer meal that you can feel good about serving … and eating!
Southwestern Chopped Salad
Recipe adapted from Damn Delicious
5 cups chopped romaine lettuce
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup canned corn kernels, drained (we used grilled corn instead, and way more, approximiately six ears of corn)
1/2 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1 avocado, halved, seeded, peeled and diced
1/4 cup tortilla strips, for garnish (use Fritos!)
For the cilantro lime dressing
1 cup loosely packed cilantro, stems removed
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 cloves garlic (we used three cloves)
Juice of 1 lime
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (we used white wine vinegar)
Directions:
To make the cilantro lime dressing, combine cilantro, Greek yogurt, garlic, lime juice and salt in the bowl of a food processor. With the motor running, add olive oil and vinegar in a slow stream until emulsified; set aside.
To assemble the salad, place romaine lettuce in a large bowl; top with tomatoes, corn, black beans and cilantro. Pour the dressing on top of the salad and gently toss to combine. Stir in avocado.
Serve immediately, garnished with tortillas trips, if desired.
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