I love Mexican – Southwest flavors and incorporate them into my food on a regular basis. Even my chopped salads can take on a Latin American flavor profile. I choose ingredients like beans seasoned with cumin, onion and garlic, a creamy vegan Chipotle Cheese Sauce with smoky chipotle chili powder, jalapeno powder, smoked paprika and garlic, fresh or frozen corn and a grain like oat groats or brown rice. Home made salsa with just the right amount of heat- using fresh or canned tomatoes or even a Mango Lime Salsa. Some oil free crispy Tortilla Strips add a delightful crunch and texture. It is the layering of flavors and textures that combine to create a simple but very satisfying eating experience.

This salad is so much fun to eat! I love chopped salads because they make the greens and other salad ingredients taste even better. Once the basic salad is chopped it is more moist and each and every bite tastes incredible. After chopping the basic salad the toppings are added. The flavors are amazing – you can control how hot you want it because you can make it spicy or not depending on your salsa choice and how you season the Chipotle Cheeze Sauce. What is too spicy or not spicy enough is such a personal individual perspective. That is what is fun about making your own food – you get to choose. I love that!

Watch this short little video to see how I create this salad and how easy it is to put it together. If you don’t have dried beans to make yourself then feel free to use canned beans but season them with a little ground cumin, garlic powder and onion powder. It is the layers of flavor that make this salad taste amazing. You don’t have to have the exact brands or ingredients that I use. This is just one idea of how to make this salad – be creative and use the ingredients you like and what you have to make your own version. Have fun!

See the blog post and video for Simple Salad Batch Prep so you can always have salads ready to use in your fridge. If you don’t have a Holland Bowl Mill bowl here is a video on How to Chop a Salad Without a Wood Bowl. If you want to know more about how to chop a salad using a wood bowl and a mezzaluna knife and how to get a free mezzaluna knife see this post How To Make A Chopped Salad with a Wood Bowl.

To make crispy no oil corn tortilla strips just cut corn tortillas into the size you prefer. Lay them on your air fryer tray. I don’t preheat the Breville Smart Oven Air fryer – just set it on the air fryer function, 375 degrees and it takes around 5 minutes depending on the thickness and how wet the corn tortillas are. Watch them closely as they will go from not done to burned in a hurry. If you don’t have an air fryer make the no oil tortilla strips in your oven. I would preheat the oven to 375 degrees and place the cut corn tortillas on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat mat and watch them closely – I don’t know how long it will take as it all depends on how thick and wet the tortillas are. Check after 5 mintues and then watch closely as they go from not done to burned in a hurry.

This is the brand I like and buy at Whole Foods. Our Costco sells the regular size ones but not the sliders. They are also available at Safeway and Nugget Market and other grocery stores. Some stores sell a thin version as well which are my favorite.

Any of these or some of them combined add a nice layer of flavor to a chopped salad, Nourish Bowl and many other recipes. California Balsamic has a wide variety of flavored Balsamic vinegars to choose from. Put Nutmeg Notebook in the message box on the check out page and with any size order you get 2 free trial sizes – you can even enter in the flavors you want to try! This is not an affiliate link we just love their products and think you will too. We do have an affiliate link for Well Your World Sauces and Salad Dressings. His products sell out fast so if he is out of what you want right now be sure to keep checking his page for the restock. We love the sauces and dressings and you can watch our video review of them here.

Local Spicery is my favorite brand of high quality locally milled spices. This ground cumin seed is by far one of my favorite spices. I use it in so many recipes – love the flavor of ground cumin! They carry an entire line of SOS Free spice blends. We love to support the small business owners who are creating products for us plant based eaters. If you enter Nutmeg Notebook in the message box on the check out page you will get 2 free spice samples with your order – you can specify what two spices you would like to try! Buddy up with a friend to create an order and split the cost of shipping and have one person receive the order. You can always arrange for a “porch pick up” or drop off of your friends spices during this sheltering in place. If you want to know more see our series of videos all about Local Spicery.

This is more of a method of how to make a Mexican Chopped Salad as oppossed to a recipe. What you choose to put in it is up to you. I vary it depending on what I have prepped and on hand.

As you can see there are many different wayt to execute this salad. It turns out a little bit different each time I make depending on what ingredients I have in stock at the time. What I show in the video is just one way – be creative and use the ingredients you like. It’s going to be wonderful!

In this video version of my Mexican Chopped Salad I used Cumin Pinto Beans – using my Cumin Black Bean Recipe from my Ponachos Recipe but subbing dried pinto beans. I will post the bean recipe down below. You could also use lentils like the Chili Taco Lentil Recipe or you can check out my Mexican Fiesta Cooking Webinar that we sell where I show you how to make Taco Lentils in a pressure cooker plus 9 more recipes (including my favorite Refried Bean recipe) to create an entire Mexican Meal with dessert!

Oat Groats cooked in the pressure cooker but you could use rice or quinoa or your favorite grain.

Corn on the cob cooked in the pressure cooker. You could use frozen or canned. You can Air Fry Corn on the Cob or Grill it with fresh lime juice.

My Chipotle Cheeze Sauce recipe from the Ponachos recipe or your favorite vegan cheese sauce. I will post the recipe down below. You can use the Well Your World Cheese Sauce Mix and add some garlic powder, onion powder, Chipotle Chili powder and ground jalapeno powder or a fresh jalapeno to taste.

Salsa can be your favorite salsa – I love the Mango Lime Salsa but I also like Tami’s Easy Red Salsa or Salsa Verde a big hit with the family or try another family favorite Fresh Salsa using fresh tomatoes – it’s called Chimol in Honduras and Pico de gallo in Mexica. We just call it amazing!

Green onions or chopped red onion is nice as well as diced tomatoes and of course I love fresh cilantro and fresh lime juice too.

It’s such a beautiful salad and it tastes as awesome as it looks!

Use the Cumin Black Bean Recipe but sub dried pinto beans instead of dried black beans. Click on this link if you want to see me making the Bean recipe and the Chipotle Nacho Cheeze Sauce recipe in the Ponachos Blog Post.

Cumin Black Beans – Pressure Cooker

Tami Kramer Nutmeg Notebook

These Cumin Black Beans have way more flavor than any canned beans you buy. They are super easy to make and economical too! A 1 pound bag of dried beans is pretty inexpensive. Once cooked these beans can be put into freezer bags or freezer containers and frozen for future use. We usually eat them all before that happens. This recipe also works well with pinto beans.

5 from 1 vote

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Course Main Course

Cuisine Mexican

Equipment

Electric Pressure Cooker

Ingredients

1 pound dried black beans (or pinto beans) rinsed with cold water and any broken beans or pebbles tossed out
1 onion chopped
3 garlic cloves minced
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon Table Tasty salt substitute or salt substitute of your choice
2 tablespoons fresh jalapeno pepper minced, optional or 1/4 tsp jalapeno powder
6 1/2 cups water

Optional

1 each juice of 1 lime added after the beans are cooked

Instructions

Combine all ingredients except lime juice in electric pressure cooker, set timer for 45 minutes,high pressue, natural pressure release. When beans are done cooking, add the juice of 1 lime if desired.

Slow Cooker Method

Place all ingredients except lime juice in a slow cooker, cover and cook on high for 3-5 hours or until beans are tender. Mine took about 4 hours. Add lime juice if desired and stir. Leftover beans can be frozen in freezer bags or freezer safe containers for future use.

Storing

Store in the refrigerator and eat with in 3-5 days. Beans may be frozen in freezer bags or freezer safe containers.

Variation

This recipe works well with pinto beans too.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

The Chipotle Nacho Cheeze Sauce is good on so many things like corn on the cob, as a dip for oil free corn tortilla chips, on baked potatoes, broccoli, steamed greens, rice or quinoa, mashed potatoes or with refried beans on corn tortillas and then heated up in a skillet, on tostados with taco lentils or beans. It’s amazing!

Chipotle Nacho Cheese Sauce

Tami Kramer Nutmeg Notebook

This creamy nacho cheeze sauce is super simple to make but big on flavor. You can cut back on the chipotle powder and jalapeno powder to control the heat if desired.

5 from 7 votes

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Course Sauce

Cuisine Mexican

Servings