I started making this easy southwest chopped salad for lunches last summer and it is still a favorite. Although this salad requires a little chopping, I still consider it easy because I almost always have all the ingredients on hand.
Having a well stocked pantry makes it easy to whip up a good lunch without much pre-thought. I use canned black beans, frozen corn, jarred jalapenos, bagged tortilla chips, hot sauce and bottled ranch. I always have cabbage and onions in the fridge. Therefore the greens are ususally the only thing I need to put on the grocery list!
For me, a chopped salad needs to be 50% crunchy veggies and 50% greens. This ratio is lower on the greens side than a traditional salad, but that’s what makes a chopped salad unique, its crunchier! See my ideas for crunchy vegetables below.
I almost always make my own salad dressings, like this lemon feta vinaigrette or my red wine vinaigrette. The only type of bottled salad dressing I keep on hand is ranch because homemade ranch just doesn’t last long, and I don’t keep the ingredients to make it in the pantry.
I love to spice my bottled ranch up with some hot sauce to make it more appropriate for this southwest salad. Yes, they do sell spicy ranch, but I don’t want to stock two kinds of ranch when I can make it at home!
Variations to the Easy Southwest Chopped Salad recipe:
- Make it easier: Buy precut veggies, like bagged lettuce and coleslaw mix. This is not the best way to get more bang for your buck, but it works if you are not willing to spend the time chopping!
- Crunchy vegetable options: I adore cabbage in this recipe, you can use red, green, or a mix like I did in the photos. Other vegetables to consider include shredded carrot or shredded broccoli, anything that you would use in a slaw will do.
- Optional: I don’t always use the red pepper because it is harder to keep on hand. Omit it if you don’t have it and just use onion, green onion, or even cilantro. Up to you!
- Spicy (or not): This salad is spicy because that’s the way I like it! Make your salad to taste, cutting back on the jalapenos and hot sauce if necessary.
- 1 ½ cups thinny sliced cabbage or clowslaw mix or broccoli slaw mix
- 1 ½ cups thinny sliced greens (romaine and kale used in photos)
- ½ cup cooked black beans (homemade or from a can)
- ½ cup corn (thawed from frozen)
- ¼ cup shredded cheddar or Mexican cheese
- 2 TBS minced onion and/or minced bell pepper
- 1-2 TBS pickled jalapenos, from a jar, or to taste
- ⅓ cup crushed tortilla chips
- 2 ½ TBS bottled ranch
- ½ TBS vinegar-based hot sauce, or to taste
- Layer your greens, cabbage, black beans, corn, cheese, onion/pepper, jalapenos, and tortilla chips in a bowl. Toss to mix.
- Mix together the ranch and vinegar-based hot sauce (such as Louisiana). Drizzle over the salad and toss to coat. Eat immediately.
