Mexican Chopped Salad with Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette
A delicious homemade lime and cilantro vinaigrette takes this Mexican chopped salad from great to absolutely amazing! Serve it as a side dish or main dish!
I tend to gravitate to people who are honest, laugh at my jokes, and willingly share recipes. That last one is kind of a deal breaker.
You might have all the attributes of longterm BFF, but if you hoard recipes, I’m out of there.
Sharing is caring. And I’m super curious to know – are you a recipe sharer? And second question, how do you feel when people aren’t willing to share recipes?
My friend, Hollie, known for her food (hint: this Russian Cream recipe), is a recipe giver. I love her for more reasons than that, but it’s pretty high up there.
This Mexican chopped salad is hers, and it is phenomenally delicious.
In fact, I believe she made it a couple months ago to feed a crowd of 100 and it was raved about for weeks.
Simple as can be, it has quickly become one of my favorite salads and is one of those endearingly versatile salads that can easily be served as a side dish (alongside these Smothered Sweet Pork Burritos perhaps?) or transitioned into a main dish with a simple addition of grilled chicken (would be so tasty with a side of cornbread also; yum).
One of the ingredients that makes this salad stellar, special, and a little crunchy is the jicama. Don’t be scared if you’ve never used it. Here’s a great starter guide for all things jicama.
I promise, it’s easy to work with, widely available, and adds a yummy texture and flavor. You might find yourself wanting to snack on it forever more.
Mmmm, I love jicama. And I love this salad.
Thanks, Hollie!
Mexican Chopped Salad with Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette
Ingredients
Salad:
- 2-3 medium romaine hearts, chopped
- 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
- ½ to 1 cup frozen corn, thawed (or fresh corn kernels)
- 1 cup chopped tomatoes or halved cherry tomatoes
- ½ to 1 cup peeled and chopped or sliced jicama
- 1 cup chopped cucumbers
- ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 cup cubed cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
- Diced avocados, optional
Vinaigrette:
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice
- 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 to 3 tablespoons honey
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- In a large bowl, toss together all the salad ingredients.
- Combine all the dressing ingredients together in a jar or blender and shake/process until well-combined. Add additional salt and pepper to taste, if needed.
- Pour the dressing over the salad to taste or serve on the side.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted slightly from my friend Hollie S.
can you use white vinegar instead of red wine?
The flavor will be different, but yes, you can experiment with other types of vinegar.
Hi Mel!! I’d love to make this salad to go along with your chicken enchilada casserole when I take a meal to a friend fighting cancer, but she can’t do cilantro. Do you think the dressing would work without it?
Sure! Maybe add a bit of fresh parsley to help kick up the flavor a bit.
This may be the best salad I have ever made and was a huge hit with my friends. The dressing is amazing!
Made this tonight & we all loved it! So delicious & refreshing. Went perfect with the enchiladas I made. My husband who usually doesn’t care for beans told me that he actually liked the beans in this! Note: The only thing I different was that I did not include the jicama. Next time I hope I can find one so that I can try it.
We enjoyed this salad tonight. My kids had never tired jicama before and it was a hit. Easy and delicious!
This salad and dressing was a big hit for a family event. Love the dressing especially.
I made this salad for Super Bowl Sunday and the salad was very good got great reviews the dressing is fantastic!
Thanks, Mel
can you make this dressing one or two days ahead
Yes!
I love this dressing! I just ate it with some Romaine, sweet corn, spiced black beans, chopped pepper, red onions, tomato, avocado, and shredded tortilla. So freakin good!
Delicious, especially with fresh corn and Monterey Jack cheese. Only needed half the dressing, but I don’t mind leftovers.
Sooooooo goood!! The whole family love it. All 21 of us!! Differently going to make it again it for the whole family!
Made this twice and loving it!! it has started to become our fav and easy to assemble lunch items. I have two questions though:
– what can I use instead of jicama ? I am unable to find it in my area..
– Can we club this dressing with cashew dressing / any mustard dressing? I hope there would not be any foods reacting with each other in a negative way.. I’m super new to salad making so sorry for this basic question 🙁
What is the shelf life of the dressing
Probably up to a week.
We loved this! The vinaigrette dressing is amazing. This was great with grilled chicken & avocado!
Awesome recipe. Great Salad. I added more honey to the dressing..
Hi Mel
How much for each ingredient would you recommend for a party of 60?
We’re doing a taco bar but want to have a salad as well.
I would probably just 8X the recipe for that size of crowd.
Made this tonight to bring to a dinner party. It was super quick and easy…and also delicious! Will definitely add this to my “go to” recipe collection!
I made the dressing for simple salad of leaf lettuce and avocado to go alongside chicken enchiladas. The dressing was spectacular; next time I will make it for the chopped salad.
Oh, my! After all the holiday food and parties, this salad calls me! Looks absolutely fantastic – thank you so much.
Made this salad to bring to a dinner tonight and it was fantastic! It looked gorgeous and was a great addition of flavors to the enchiladas and rice that the hostess made.
The dressing was really light with the perfect sweetness and we all loved the cilantro! I will definitely made this again.
Only thing… it took way longer than 20min. to prepare. However all yummy food usually takes more time but totally worth it. Thanks for the recipe.
Made this to go with my Mexican themed dinner for the first time. My friends and I absolutely love this salad. The dressing was also a big hit. I can’t wait to try it with chicken and make it my main course. Everyone wanted this recipe!
Would love to make this recipe! If I elimated cilantro from recipe, would it make a big difference? Son-in-law has stomach issues with cilantro!
This salad is amazing. I was worried about it – I don’t have the best luck with salads, and I have a fussy husband. But it’s a hit! He thinks it’s really interesting.
I couldn’t get jicama, so I googled substitutes and went with green apple. And the only corn I had was in a pea and corn mix.
I was scared the vinaigrette was too strong, but it’s perfect.
I made this salad to share with my quilting group. What a hit! Everyone loved it and wanted the recipe. Some hadn’t had jicama, so it was a new experience for them. I can’t wait to serve it to my daughter-in-law who makes fun of me when I serve a bottled dressing. Thank you, Helen
Glad it was a hit, Helen!
Trying this tonight with shredded pork tacos, question im trying to figure is nutritional or how many Weght Watchers points this is???
Can you add the dressing to the salad ahead of time…like several hours?
If it were me, I probably wouldn’t add it more than an hour in advance so the lettuce stays crisp instead of wilted.
I just prepped this salad for a big party tomorrow, and am excited to serve it! Quick question about the dressing. It seems really, really runny. Is that the way it is suppose to be? I’ve gone over each ingredient and I put them in right, it just seems extra runny.
Thank you for all your wonderful recipes! I know I can trust that they’re delicious if it comes from your site!
Hi Stephanie – yes, this dressing is on the thin side. 🙂
Love love love this salad. I couldn’t find jicama so used some toasted pepita seedsand it worked great. Thanks for a great salad recipe.
Myself and two girlfriends from college, along with family decided to get together on break and do a potluck. Well needless to say Mexican was the main course for the dinner. I chose salad not knowing what a good salad would be to go with this dinner. So I came across this recipe and I liked that the salad looked healthy an delicious. Well it was a hit everyone loved it and took some home. Thank you…
Clueless in Seattle
This sounds delicious. Exactly what I was looking for to go with my homemade chicken enchiladas.
I made this yesterday and it was a huge hit! A few notes:
1. It’s a very large salad. Either halve it or start with your biggest bowl.
2. Smaller pieces of romaine are better. Many of the toppings are small and may end up in the bottom of the bowl otherwise.
3. Consider how you layer the toppings. I added them in order, covering up the colorful tomatoes and corn with the relatively colorless cucumber and jicama.
Is this gluten free?
As long as the black beans are processed in a gluten-free facility, it should be.
Made this salad tonight for dinner with chicken breast!! It is so excellent!! The honey lime dressing takes the whole thing up a notch. Thank you Mel!! You’re the best of the best:)
Made this tonight and we LOVED it! Question…how could I add a little heat to this dressing?
I’d just add a dash of hot sauce or maybe a pinch of cayenne. Glad you enjoyed the salad!
I added a teaspoon of chili powder (Penzey’s medium hot).
This salad is awesome…especially the dressing. I didn’t have Red Vinegar so I used Apple Cider Vinegar and I didn’t have quite enough limes so I finished it off with lemons.
I also used spinach instead of romaine and layered everything in a mason jar for my lunch.
Very pretty and delicious! Thanks Mel.
I made this salad with slow cooker chicken taco meat and used as a topping in flour tortillas. delicious!
I had a friend who is a world traveler come to dinner. I served this salad and made it almost exactly as written (I subbed Apple Cider Vinegar for the Red Wine Vinegar). It was a hit. This is definitely a keeper. Fantastic recipe I will make again and again. The jicama gave it it a great crunch. I usually eat it with Hummus but it’s perfect in this salad. Thanks again for a winner recipe. Mel, you’re the best!!!
This salad was a hit at a Mexican Fiesta potluck last night! Super great timing of your post! How did you know I needed a fresh idea and also love jicama. Thanks Mel!
We had this for dinner tonight with diced chicken and it was great! I made Pao de queijo as well and it was a great dinner. Thanks!
This looks like a great twist to our almost weekly mexican salads. I love how versatile mexican food is, you just can’t go wrong.
We’ve never tried jicama before but it sounds promising! I guess we could start by making this salad!
Mel, you’re the best dang cook I know. You save my bacon weekly, if not daily with your fabulous recipes.
This salad looks delicious! I haven’t tried jicama in salads before, but when I was a kid we would smother it in chilli powder and lime and eat it at school! I would love to try it in this salad!
Do you think it would be okay to sub apple cider vinegar?
Certainly worth a try, Sheree!
OK, the apple cider vinegar worked great! I also added a teaspoon of Penzey’s medium hot chili powder to the dressing for a little extra flavor & heat. Also, since I needed the dressing to last longer than a couple of days, I omitted the cilantro & just added extra to the salad. Thank you!
I love jicama. I used to think it was gross, then I got one in my bountiful basket and my friend said, you have to give it another try before you say anything. So I did and she was right, it is so yummy! I’m excited to try this!! Salad is my favorite. Are you going to post the new presentation with the other one? I would love it. You’re so awesome! So excited to teach the girls your material!!
not your friend. your SISTER! jeez… 😉
YUM! This looks amazing. I like your idea of adding grilled chicken to it. What a great lunch or dinner idea. Kudos to Hollie!
this is an adaptation of a recipe that is on the Epicurious site…..
MEXICAN CHOPPED SALAD WITH HONEY-LIME DRESSING
SELF JULY 2003
4/4 fork user rating
REVIEWS (219)
93%
MAKE IT AGAIN
Tortillas aren’t the only depository for beans, corn and tomatoes. Let romaine lettuce do the job. Feta cheese supplies a dose of calcium and major flavor. And the honey-lime dressing adds just the right touch of tangy sweetness. Buen provecho!
It is a great salad…The dressing is wonderful.
Yummo! Cant wait to try the dressing!
Maybe an odd question, but your dressing in the pictures looks almost creamy and white, but I don’t see any milk/mayo in the recipe.. Did you add anything to yours in the pictures?
No, there’s nothing creamy in the dressing – I think just blending it up really well emulsifies the oil so that it looks more opaque, if that makes sense.
Yum! This is totally my kind of salad! It looks delicious!
Paige
http://thehappyflammily.com
This dish looks very yummy and I have decided to try this dish tonight