Quick Taco Salad

Continuing the themes of opening cans to find out what I might like to pressure can and meals that take less effort because I'm closing more often, I threw together a pretty taco salad.  I used leftover pitas instead of buying tortillas or chips, but it's the same thing.

A lot of the pantry videos I watch for ideas are from people with huge families.  There aren't that many out there from singles or couples.  I have to keep in mind that what they eat in a day would feed me for a week.  Odds are, when I do get around to canning beans, I'm going to do a couple of pounds of two or three varieties to make a full canner load and call it for the year, as I seem to be opening one or two cans of beans a month.  It still saves a lot of money over buying canned, plus I get the bonus of not having to search for the one or two cans of No Salt Added on the shelf.

Even with going out to the garden to harvest kale, dicing half an onion, and cutting up the tomatoes instead of using canned, this cold salad took about fifteen minutes to throw together.  The first night, I did it as layers for the photo, but I tossed the leftovers, put them on top of freshly shredded kale, and finished them with salsa and cheese until the salad was gone.

*4 C fresh chopped lettuce, spinach, or kale
*1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
*1 can kernel corn, drained and rinsed
2 Roma tomatoes, diced, or one can diced tomatoes, drained
1 C diced red onion
1 diced or pickled jalapeño, optional
*1 C salsa verde
*sliced black olives, avocado, shredded cheese, and sour cream for garnish

1.  In serving bowl or on plates, layer washed and dried lettuce, beans, corn, diced tomato, and onion.

2.  Spoon salsa over the salad evenly and let it percolate through the ingredients.

3.  Top with garnishes of choice.  Yes, I used kalamata olives instead of regular black.  I had an open jar in the fridge, but black would have tasted more appropriate.  And that's artichoke instead of avocado, because I got a couple of surprise buds past the usual season.  Serve chilled with tortillas or chips on the side.

Difficulty rating  π