Tex-Mex Bowl with Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette

This Tex Mex Bowl, inspired by the Super Mex Bowl at Los Tios, is a super easy summer meal. Buy the chicken already grilled, the pico already chopped, the pepitas already roasted. Heat up some black beans and brown rice, run the blender to make a quick, just-spicy-enough dressing, and throw everything in a bowl.

This bowl is a new obsession at our house. It’s inspired by the Super Mex Bowl at Los Tios (hello Los Tios…could you please bring back the punch card for your bowls where you get the 10th one free?!), because we cannot get enough of that yummy thing. Before Los Tios opened in West U (yay), the trip across town daunted us into making our own family version of their Super Mex Bowl, which is now our Tex-Mex Bowl with Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette.

This is a super easy summer meal. Buy the chicken already grilled, the pico already chopped, the pepitas already roasted. Heat up some black beans and brown rice, run the blender to make a quick, just-spicy-enough dressing, and throw everything in a bowl. 

We’ve added and deleted according to our own tastes: one of us doesn’t like avocado, another isn’t crazy about corn, another loves tangy feta on Mex. All of that is to say that our Tex-Mex Bowl is super-customizable. Just add or subtract what you like and what you don’t. As long as you keep a base of finely chopped kale, brown rice, and cumin-spiked black beans, you will wind up with a bowl so full of texture and tang that you might wind up like us: obsessed.

Tex-Mex Bowl with Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette 

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
4 cups finely chopped kale
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 cup pico de gallo
2 grilled chicken breasts, cubed
¼ cup crumbled feta
¼ cup roasted pepitas
Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette (recipe follows)

Place the black beans in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the cumin, salt, and pepper, and cook for about 5 minutes, just until the beans are warm.

Divide the black beans evenly among four bowls, then top with equal amounts kale, rice, pico de gallo, chicken, feta, and pepitas. Drizzle Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette over the bowls.

Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette

1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
1 small garlic clove, chopped
1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
Juice of 1 lime
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup olive oil

Place the cilantro, garlic, jalapeño, lime juice, cumin, and salt in a blender, blending to combine. Add the olive oil and blend until the dressing is smooth.