Healthy Taco Salad

Recipe Difficulty: Easy

Recipe Tags:

• Taco Salad
• Healthy Taco Salad
  
• Black Beans & Corn
  
• Fresh Salsa (pico de gallo)
  
• Healthy Vegan Recipes
  

Who doesn't love a good Taco Salad? I love this recipe because it is full of flavour, but also good for you ingredients. There are plenty of Taco salads out there with tons of sour cream, cheese, & meat. Of course those aren't going to taste bad, but why not have something super flavourful AND good for your body. Sure this has corn chips, but I'm Ok with that. I often buy multigrain, or a quality organic brand, and as far as including a couple handfuls in my dinner goes, I think it evens out when you're loading in the vegetables and whole grains. 

This Taco Salad also has fresh salsa, black beans, corn, quinoa, avocado, fresh mint & cilantro. Then it all gets dressed with a simple cumin lime vinaigrette. I also like to garnish this with pickled jalapeno peppers, a drizzle of coconut yogurt and a sprinkle of smoked paprika. 

Taco Salad

Ingredients for salad (for about 4 servings): 

•  1 cup quinoa, cooked
•  a large package of greens (couple handfuls per person)
•  1 can black beans
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups corn niblets
•  3 tomatoes, chopped + a bit of red onion, finely chopped
•  2 avoacados
•  1 big bag of corn chips (I like using multigrain if I can get them)
•  a handful of chopped mint
•  a handful fresh cilantro
•  2 limes
•  1 x recipe for cumin lime dressing (below)
• To garnish: pickled jalapeno peppers, coconut yogurt, smoked paprika

Method: 
I chose to mix the ingredients with the vinaigrette separately and layer them onto my plate, but it's not necessary. 

1. Toss with the vinaigrette: greens & chopped mint, black beans & corn, tomato and red onion. Season with S & P. Divide onto plates.
2. Toss quinoa with a bit of vinaigrette, S & P and a few sprinkles of smoked paprika, spoon onto salad mixture.
3. To the salad add slices of avocado, a couple of lime wedges, corn chips, a drizzle of coconut yogurt, fresh cilantro and an extra sprinkle of smoked paprika.
4.  Dig in.

​

Smoked Paprika can be expensive in stores, this is the exact one I buy for my home as I use it in a lot of recipes and it is the most affordable way to purchase it. 

Whisk all ingredients together, store unused vinny in the fridge
​

• 1 cup good quality olive oil ( I use an affordable Presidents Choice brand Extra Virgin Olive Oil, you just dont want something that tastes bitter.)
• 3/4 cup lime juice (i like it punchy, a traditional vinaigrette ratio would call for 1/2 cup of lime juice to 1 cup of oil, you could start with that ratio and add more lime to taste)
• 1 tbsp dijon
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp cumin

Cumin Lime Vinny