This Southwest salad is made with grilled corn and packed with protein for a great meatless Monday option. Made with a simple 2 ingredient Southwest ranch dressing for busy weeknights.

This recipe, 2 ingredient Southwest ranch dressing, is sponsored by Nellie’s Free Range Eggs. 

Have you ever tried to recreate the amazing flavor of your favorite restaurant’s Southwest style salad, but come up short? I’m sharing my go-to Southwest salad including two recipes for delicious Southwest ranch dressing: including one with just 2 ingredients!

First, it’s worth noting that this is an amazing way to pull a meatless Monday meal together that everyone in the family approves of, because each family member can customize their meal with their choice of toppings.

Southwest salads often include some basic ingredients: lettuce, tomatoes, corn, black beans, cilantro, and tortilla strips. We’ve discovered our favorite way to elevate homemade Southwest salad is to add fresh avocado, green onions, and grilled corn straight from the cob. Luckily, you can still get grilled corn in the freezer section when you’re tight on time, or when fresh corn is out of season.

We also like to give our salad an extra boost of protein by adding hard boiled eggs. Not only do they taste great, but they mix perfectly with the avocado and black beans to give this salad a wonderful texture so you won’t even miss the meat!

We love to use Nellie’s Free Range Eggs because they truly are the best eggs we’ve found at the grocery store. Their eggs come from happy hens that live on Certified Humane Free Range farms. Just looking at those bright yellow yolks, you just know they’re going to deliver on flavor in a big way!

Now for the dressing. I’m always looking for restaurant dupes for Southwest ranch dressing, and I’m going to share two.

The first Southwest Ranch Dressing is made from allll the seasonings—chili, cayenne, cumin, chipotle, garlic, onion, and a little salt. Mix it in with your favorite mayo, add some lime juice and it makes an amazing veggie dip. Or, add just a little milk or water to make it a runnier salad dressing consistency.The flavor is rich and delicious, but if you need to make dinner in a pinch, you could use something a little quicker…right? That’s where this 2 ingredient Southwest ranch dressing comes in handy.

This semi-homemade version is a great hack for making Southwest style ranch dressing in a flash. Just whisk your favorite pre-made ranch dressing with either chipotle seasoning or some hot sauce, to taste.

 

Which recipe do you think you’ll turn to most often, the homemade Southwest ranch dressing, or the 2 ingredient Southwest ranch dressing? Be sure to share you favorite, or tell me in the comments below!

Southwest Salad with 2 ingredient Southwest Ranch dressing

Yield: 8

This Southwest salad is made with grilled corn and packed with protein for a great meatless Monday option. Made with a simple 2-ingredient Southwest Ranch dressing for busy weeknights.

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Ingredients

• SALAD:
• 1 Head green leaf lettuce
• 1 Avocado, sliced
• 1 Ear of corn, grilled and kernels removed
• ½ Lime, sliced into wedges
• ½ C. Grape tomatoes, chopped
• ½ Can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 4 Nellie’s Free Range Eggs, hard boiled and sliced
• 2 Green onions, sliced
• ¼ Red onion, diced
• Tortilla chip salad toppers
• Cilantro, if desired
• HOMEMADE SOUTHWEST RANCH DRESSING
• 1 C. Mayonnaise
• 1 tsp. Chili powder
• 1 tsp. Garlic powder
• 1 tsp. Onion powder1 tsp. Cumin
• Juice from ½ Lime
• ¼ tsp. Salt
• ¼ tsp Chipotle seasoning
• ⅛ tsp. Cayenne
• Water or milk, if desired, for thinner dressing
• 2-INGREDIENT SOUTHWEST RANCH DRESSING
• 1 C Ranch Dressing
• 1 Tbsp. Chipotle seasoning OR hot sauce (to taste)