Mexican salad: Vibrant flavours for your holiday table
A colourful Mexican salad can be a vivid accent on the holiday table. It's an addition that is often missing, which is unfortunate because it perfectly balances the heaviness of traditional pâtés, smoked meats, and roasts. Serve the chicken and vegetable salad with nachos or tortillas.
Even during Easter holidays, Mexicans don't part with their favourite corn tortilla. They serve it with various fresh toppings. Popular choices include green vegetables called quelites, salad from young cactus shoots, and tomato salsa or guacamole.
Mexican salad – choose your dressing and toppings
Below is a recipe for a salad with a mayonnaise dressing, but you can also prepare it with a light dressing based on olive oil and lime juice. Mix it with finely chopped cilantro, add grated garlic, and a bit of jalapeño pepper to get a slightly lighter but very aromatic sauce in Mexican style.
You can swap romaine lettuce for arugula, which has a slightly sharper taste. Instead of black beans, you can add red ones, which have a bit more pronounced flavour. However, black beans are much better suited for cold dishes – they are milder and more nutty, have a soft texture, but don't break apart easily. Meanwhile, red beans work better in hot dishes like chili con carne.
Recipe for Mexican salad with chicken
A great idea is to serve the salad in tortilla bowls. To prepare these, simply cut circles from the tortillas and place them in muffin tins.
Ingredients:
- 1 chicken breast (cooked or baked)
- 1 ripe avocado
- 250 mL of drained black beans
- 250 mL of canned corn
- 2 medium tomatoes
- half a head of romaine lettuce
- 125 mL of grated cheddar cheese
- 30 mL of mayonnaise
- 5 mL of lime or lemon juice
- 1 clove of garlic pressed through a press
- a pinch of salt and pepper
- optional: 2.5 mL of ground chili pepper
Instructions:
- Cut the cooked or baked chicken breast into cubes.
- Drain and rinse canned beans and corn.
- Peel the avocado, remove the pit, and cut the flesh into cubes.
- Tear the lettuce into smaller pieces and cut the tomatoes.
- Place the salad ingredients in a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl, mix the dressing ingredients: mayonnaise, lime or lemon juice, pressed clove of garlic, salt, pepper, and optionally, ground chili powder.
- Mix the prepared dressing with diced chicken, beans, corn, tomatoes, and avocado. Transfer onto the lettuce. Sprinkle grated cheddar cheese on top.
