Southwest Salad with Catalina Dressing

You'll love this Southwest Salad with homemade Catalina Dressing! With hard-boiled eggs, avocados, corn, black beans, tomatoes, cheese and olives, it's a hearty, Tex-Mex salad that's perfect as a main dish.

I could eat this Southwest Salad with Catalina Dressing every day. It's been making frequent appearances at our table for lunches and dinners because it's so versatile, fun and filling.

Not to mention, delicious and healthy!

And don't be intimidated by making Catalina dressing from scratch. It's easier than you think!

Once you've got the dressing and ingredients prepped and hanging out in the fridge in little jars or containers, they'll be calling your name every time you open the door. You'll start thinking of ways to customize your salad, and you might even want to dip a spoon in that Catalina dressing for a quick taste!

You could even try this salad with homemade Greek Yogurt Ranch Dressing!

Recipe ingredients

Salad: Use butter lettuce, Romaine or spring mix. You'll need a cup of lettuce per serving, or four cups for the full recipe.

Cheese: Use shredded cheddar, Colby Jack or even mozzarella. I like to buy a block and shred the cheese myself, but feel free to buy pre-shredded cheese for convenience.

Ketchup: This forms the basis of Catalina dressing. I prefer using Simply Heinz, since it doesn't contain high fructose corn syrup and tastes great.

Balsamic Vinegar: You can use white or dark balsamic vinegar. Dark vinegar will make the dressing the color of barbecue sauce, so use white balsamic if you prefer the Catalina dressing to look more red.

You should be able to substitute apple cider vinegar or white vinegar if needed.

Sugar: The recipe calls for a tablespoon of sugar in the dressing, but I normally use a packet of Stevia instead.

How to make it

See the card at the end of this post for the full recipe, but here's an overview.

If you'll be including hard-boiled eggs, make those first if you don't have any in your fridge.

• For the dressing, add ketchup, olive oil, vinegar, lime juice, sugar (or Stevia) and seasonings to a mason jar or a bowl.
• Cover and shake the jar to combine the ingredients (or whisk them together in a bowl).
• Place the lettuce in a bowl and add quartered hard-boiled eggs, chopped red onion, sliced olives, halved grape tomatoes, shredded cheese, black beans and chunks of avocado.
• Top with the Catalina dressing and a squeeze of lime juice.

Recipe tips

• If you own an Instant Pot, use it to make fabulous hard-boiled eggs in about 15 minutes, start to finish. But don't worry, the stove works great too!
• You can prep all of the toppings and keep each in its own little bowl. Then line them up so each person can add whatever they want to their Southwest Salad!

Add meat or seafood

This is a complete meal with the hard-boiled eggs and beans, but feel free to add more protein. Great options include Cilantro-Lime Shrimp, Salsa Salmon, Cheesy BBQ Chicken, or Glazed Pork Tenderloin.

Of course, you could add rotisserie chicken, and I bet this salad would rock with some crumbled bacon. (Oh, behave!)

How long will homemade Catalina dressing last?

This recipe makes nine ounces of Catalina dressing. It's enough for six servings of three tablespoons each.

Store leftover dressing in an air-tight jar in the refrigerator. Due to the lime juice in the dressing, use it within one week. If you omit the lime juice, the Catalina will keep for up to two weeks in the fridge.

More delicious salad recipes

• Grilled Romaine Salad with Parmesan
• Shredded Buffalo Chicken Nacho Salad
• The Best Italian Salad
• Spinach Salad with Mandarin Oranges
• Apple-Mozzarella Salad with Maple Vinaigrette

If you try this Southwest Salad recipe with Catalina Dressing, please leave a comment and a rating!

(Recipe Source: Cooking with Mamma C. Originally published on August 3, 2015 and updated now with new photos and additional information.)