This Mexican Chopped Salad topped with a creamy Honey Lime Dressing tastes as good as it looks with its kaleidoscope of colors, flavors, and textures. It features crisp romaine lettuce, red bell pepper, scallions, canned black beans, corn, tomatoes, radishes, avocado, jicama, and cotija cheese.
Add all dressing ingredients to a blender and process until smooth. Store in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. If your ingredients have separated, give them another whirl in the blender, whisk or add them to a mason jar and shake. This dressing gets better the longer it sits. Although it's delicious when you make it, it gets better with time-two to twenty-four hours work.
To make the salad, add the Romaine lettuce, black beans, tomatoes, jicama, frozen corn, radishes, red bell pepper, and avocado to a large bowl.
Top with the dressing and toss. Then garnish with the cotija cheese and scallions and serve.
Notes
The dressing is actually better if you make it up to 24 hours ahead. For the best results, instead of making the salad in advance, you could chop up the individual ingredients and store them in the refrigerator separately up to 24 hours in advance. Right before you are ready to serve it, add the dressing and combine. Do not add the dressing until right before you are ready to serve it. Alternatively, you can use this recipe to make individual mason jar salads. I frequently do this to take to the beach when we go, and they will last at least three or four days prepared in this manner. If you like to live life on the wild side, you can increase the amount of heat in the dressing by either adding the jalapeno seeds and ribs or double the amount. As the recipe is written, it has a mild amount of heat.Even though all of these ingredients add something to this salad, make it anyway if you are out of one or two ingredients. It will still be delicious. The last time I made it, I didn't have any jicama or radishes, and it was still wonderful. If you have never had jicama, give it a try. They add a crisp, juicy, crunchy element to the salad. When making the dressing, add some avocado before you blend it up. Not only does it add flavor, but it also makes the dressing especially creamy. If you are feeding a crowd, feel free to double or triple the recipe!Cotija cheese has a salty flavor profile and crumbles easily. Good substitutes are queso fresco, feta, parmesan, or romano cheese.