Taco Salad
on Mar 21, 2022, Updated Jan 29, 2024
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Taco Salad is a fun spin on classic Mexican tacos and taco bowls. This easy dinner idea is perfect for Taco Tuesday and busy weeknights!
This delicious dinner salad tastes great: crisp lettuce and chips topped with juicy taco meat and all your favorite taco toppings! Top off with some Creamy Cilantro Dressing or our Homemade Salsa.
Taco Salad
Tuesday nights for our family are, like many other families, taco night- Taco Tuesdays, right? Tacos make for a great, low-stress dinner where you can cook up some taco meat, prep some toppings, and let everyone build their own plates. When your in the middle of a busy work week, easy dinner ideas like this can be a life-saver! To keep things fresh, we usually shake things up every once in a while with fun taco recipes that use all those classic taco ingredients and flavors. Recently, we decided to do some Taco Salad.
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While I’m certain something like a Taco Salad has been around for a while, I think it was the Wendys Taco Salad that really popularized the idea. Basically, instead of filling up a flour tortilla with all your usual taco ingredients, you dress them overtop a big bed of lettuce and tortilla chips. It’s a tasty way to really load up on your greens while still enjoying all your favorite taco flavors! But, instead of going out to a fast food restaurant for one, we like to make Homemade Taco Salad.
Our Taco Salad Recipe is something we think you all with enjoy. We’ve kept things easy and simple while leaving plenty of room for experimenting and finding all your favorite toppings. Like a taco, this easy salad recipe will work best if you really make it your own. Hope you love it!
Liked this recipe? Try these other taco and Mexican dinner recipes next!
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Another go-to way to mix things up this tuesday taco night is to whip up some Taco Casserole. We packed this layered taco salad with all your favorite taco ingredients: beef, onions, cheese, salsa, and plenty of refried beans as well! Top off with some more cheese, lettuce, Fritos, and some sour cream for a delicious and filling casserole dish that’s almost too easy to make.
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Taco Pasta is another cheesy and filling dinner dish that we love to make. This quick weeknight meal comes together quick and easy: cook up some taco meat, toss in some Rotel tomatoes, add your pasta and cheese and you’re good to go. It’s as easy as that: add in some black beans or corn to make this dish extra filling!
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If you’re wanting to make tacos for a party, consider making some Walking Tacos instead. This classic fair food recipe sees you adding all your favorite taco ingredients to a bag of crushed up Doritos or Fritos. Tacos in a bag are so easy to make: set up a walking taco bar of ingredients and let people build their own!
Taco Salad Ingredients
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Ground Beef – Maybe consider using some chicken to make a Chicken Taco Salad, if that’s more your thing. Feel free to use some leftover chili here as well!
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Taco Seasoning – Don’t worry if you don’t have any on hand. Just use our recipe for Homemade Taco Seasoning.
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Salsa
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Tortilla Chips – We went with these Tostitos Bite Size Rounds. Feel free to use your favorite chips though! We’ve heard people love using different Doritos and Fritos corn chips in their salads.
- Lettuce – Go with romaine or iceberg lettuce. To keep things real easy, just grab a bag of lettuce from the grocery store.
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Diced Tomatoes
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Cheese – Cheddar, pepperjack, Monterey jack- the choice is yours!
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Sour Cream
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Olives
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Green Onions
How to make Taco Salad
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Cook up some taco meat before mixing with salsa.
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Add tortilla chips and lettuce to the bottom of serving bowl before topping with taco meat.
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Top your Taco Salad with all your favorite taco toppings before enjoying.
Start things off by browning your ground beef in a large skillet. After browning through, drain off excess fat, add in some water and taco seasoning to make taco meat. Once the water cooks off, add the salsa and stir it in with the meat.
Off on the side, prep all your taco toppings- dice your tomatoes, chop your green onions, et cetera. When everything’s ready, start assembling your salad. Start with tortilla chips…
Add your lettuce…
Put in some more chips if you’d like…
…And finally top off with your taco meat.
All that’s left from here is to hit your Homemade Taco Salad with whatever toppings you’d like! We went with many classic taco ingredients for ours.
Once your Taco Salad is topped to your liking, serve up and enjoy!
Taco Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb Ground Beef
- 1 packet Taco Seasoning
- 1/4 cup Water
- 1 cup Salsa
- 2 oz Tortilla Chips
- 6 cup Romaine Lettuce, chopped
- 1/4 cup Tomatoes, diced
- 1/2 cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese
- 1 tbsp Red Onions, diced
- 1/4 cup Sour Cream
- 1 tbsp Olives
- 1 tbsp Green Onions, sliced
Instructions
- Brown Ground beef in a skillet until no longer pink.
- Drain excess fat.
- Add taco seasoning and 1/4 cup water.
- Stir and cook until thickened, about 5 minutes.
- Add salsa and stir to combine.
- Remove from heat.
- Line salad bowl with tortilla chips.
- Add chopped lettuce.
- Top with taco meat.
- Add as additional toppings as desired
Nutrition
