Southwestern-Style Salad in Tortilla Bowls

Here’s a colorful Southwestern-style salad that’s made even more enticing by serving in its own tortilla bowl. It’s a bit awkward to pick the whole thing up, so it’s best to cut or tear pieces off as you eat it. Double the recipe for more servings; these are substantial main dish-sized portions. Photos by Evan Atlas.

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Author: Nava

Recipe type: Salad

Cuisine: Southwestern / Vegan

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Serves: 2

Here’s a colorful Southwestern-style salad that’s made even more enticing by serving in its own tortilla bowl.

Ingredients

2 burrito-size (8 to 10 inch) flour wraps
1 medium tomato, diced
½ medium avocado, pitted, peeled and diced
1 cup cooked or canned (drained and rinsed) black beans
1 cup fresh corn kernels (use raw, or cook lightly), or frozen kernels, lightly cooked
1 medium bell pepper, any color, diced
¼ cup thinly sliced red onion, or 2 to 3 thinly sliced scallions
¼ cup sliced black olives
2 tablespoons lime juice, more or less to taste
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (or omit for an oil-free salad)
¼ cup minced fresh cilantro, optional
2 big handfuls of torn romaine lettuce or mixed baby greens, or as needed
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Tuck the tortillas into two large heatproof salad bowls, wide rather than deep. Stack one bowl into the other, then nestle another bowl over the top one. In other words — three bowls with two tortillas in between — this will keep them from billowing out as they bake (see last photo below post).
Bake the tortillas in the stacked bowls for 10 minutes. Then, with oven mitts, unstack them and uncover the top tortilla. Bake uncovered for 5 minutes or so longer, or until the edges turn golden brown. Watch carefully — they can go from golden to overdone very quickly! Once they’re out of the oven, let cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Keep them in the salad bowls for serving.
Meanwhile, combine the remaining ingredients for the salad in a mixing bowl.
Divide the salad between the two tortilla bowls. If you need a bit more to fill the bowls up fully, use a little extra lettuce. Serve at once.

Variation: In place of the lime juice and oil, use your favorite salad dressing.