Taco Rice Salad

We saved a Cooking Light recipe ages ago and finally got around to trying it tonight. We enjoy Mexican food and we usually make fajitas, but this recipe for taco salad sounded insanely good and we couldn’t wait to make it! The only things we changed were ommitting the chili powder and cumin to make it more mild, and ommitting the chopped tomato because we hate tomatoes. This turned out fabulous – we'll be saving this recipe :)

We made tortilla bowls using fajita wraps that we had in the house. They were straightforward to mix – we inverted two ramekin cups on a baking pan, coated them with cooking spray and laid the tortillas on top. We brushed them with some olive oil and baked them at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes, until browned and crispy.

Source: Cooking Light

• Yield: 4 servings
• Prep: 15 minutes
• Cook: 20 minutes
• Total: 35 minutes

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 1 lb. ( 453.59 g ) ground beef
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 3 cups ( 555 g ) cooked yellow rice, we used brown rice
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• ¼ tsp. ( 0.25 tsp. ) salt
• ¼ tsp. ( 0.25 tsp. ) black pepper
• 6 cups ( 282 g ) torn romaine lettuce, about 10 oz.
• 3 cups ( 447 g ) chopped tomato, about 1-1/4 lbs
• 1 cup ( 154 g ) frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed
• ½ cup ( 80 g ) chopped red onion
• 15 ounce ( 425.24 g ) black beans, drained and rinsed

Dressing:

• ⅔ cup ( 158.67 ml ) fat-free sour cream
• ⅔ cup ( 173.33 g ) salsa
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• ½ tsp. ( 0.5 tsp. ) ground cumin

Remaining ingredient:

• ½ cup ( 56.5 g ) reduced-fat shredded cheddar cheese, 2 oz

Method

1. To prepare salad, heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add beef and garlic, and cook until browned, stirring to crumble. Drain; return beef mixture to pan. Stir in rice through next 4 ingredients (through pepper). Cool slightly. Combine lettuce and next 4 ingredients (through beans) in a large bowl; toss to combine.
2. To prepare dressing, combine sour cream, salsa, chili powder and cumin, stirring with a whisk. Spoon dressing over lettuce mixture; toss to coat. Place lettuce mixture on plate or in tortilla bowl. Top with rice mixture and shredded cheese.