We love taco salads, but those deep-fried shells are an overly-fatty and nutritionally-void waste of calories. In the summertime, I always like a nice hearty salad for dinner, so I lightened it up by using the lowest-sodium tortilla chips I could possibly find.
I’m not being paid to shill Late July’s Quinoa and Chia Chips, but I literally stood there and read every nutrition label in every single supermarket in town, and those are the lowest-sodium chips I found. (Green Mountain Gringo sells the lowest-sodium salsa, but their chips have slightly more sodium than Late July’s.)
It was a weeknight, and I was busy but if you have time to do so, did you know it’s possible to DIY tortilla chips with flour or corn tortillas? Spray them with nonstick, put them on a baking sheet and put them in a 400F oven for 2 minutes (or until they start turning lightly brown.)
Taco Salad With Shrimp
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil divided
- 1 cup low-sodium canned black beans
- ½ cup corn kernels fresh or frozen
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon cumin powder
- 12 ounces uncooked shrimp peeled, rinsed, patted dry
- 6 cups shredded Romaine lettuce
- ½ cup cherry tomatoes halved
- 1 avocado
- 2 green onions chopped
- 4 ounces reduced fat cheddar cheese shredded
- 4 ounces tortilla chips
Taco Ranch Dressing
- 4 tablespoon nonfat Greek Yogurt
- 1 tablespoon powdered fat-free buttermilk
- 2 teaspoon cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon cumin powder
Instructions
- Mix together the dressing ingredients and set aside (Saco brand buttermilk powder is very good and usually easy to find in the supermarket baking aisle.)
- Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and cook the black beans, the corn kernels, ¼ teaspoon chili powder, ¼ teaspoon garlic powder and ¼ teaspoon cumin for about 5 minutes
- Remove the bean and corn mixture from the skillet and set it aside. Add the shrimp to the same skillet (might need a spritz of nonstick spray) and turn the heat up to medium-high. Cook the shrimp until they turn pink and translucent.
- Arrange the lettuce, the bean/corn mixture, the tomatoes, avocado, chopped green onions, shredded cheddar, tortilla sauce, dressing and cooked shrimp in a salad bowl.
