Taco Salad
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Posted: 07/17/23
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There’s nothing like a classic Taco Salad! We love that it comes together in about 20 minutes, is bursting with flavor and so easy to make. Seasoned ground beef, and your favorite taco toppings piled on a bed of lettuce and topped with an easy homemade dressing.
Taco salad is such a great meal to throw together on a busy evening. This easy dish is loaded with protein and packed with veggies, not to mention the incredible flavor! With perfectly seasoned taco meat and a creamy salsa dressing, you’ll be coming back for seconds with this meal.
When everyone has had a busy day and we just want to eat dinner and relax, I make something like this. Sheet pan nachos are another go-to dinner that’s quick and easy!
Everyone gets full and then we can go snuggle up on the couch and watch a movie for the rest of the evening. So, if you’re needing some easy dinner recipes, try out this taco salad!
Contents
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Why You’ll Love this Taco Salad Recipe
- This is a great meal prep recipe as long as you store the lettuce, meat, and dressing separately! Then when you’re ready to eat, build a tasty salad.
- There’s not much clean-up! Just a few dishes to put in the dish washer and a skillet to clean.
- I love this dish when I want a meal that isn’t but is full of protein!
Ingredients for Taco Salad
- Ground beef – I recommend using a lean blend of meat to reduce the amount of grease. 93/7 would be great!
- Cherry tomatoes – If you don’t have cherry tomatoes on hand, you can dice up some Roma tomatoes or use grape tomatoes instead.
- Shredded Mexican blend cheese – Feel free to change things up and use any cheese you want. Colby jack and cheddar cheese would both be good substitutes.
- Chopped Romaine lettuce – Grocery stores typically sell bags of chopped romaine lettuce, but you can also buy a head and chop it yourself.
- Salsa – For the best flavor, make your own homemade salsa. But you can also store-bought salsa.
- Whole kernel sweet corn – Canned corn or thawed frozen corn will both work.
- Taco seasoning – A packet of taco seasoning and homemade taco seasoning will both season it perfectly.
- Water – Use some purified or filtered water to help hydrate the taco seasoning so that it more easily mixes into the beef.
- Tortilla chips – Tortilla chips mimic the taste and crunch of a taco shell!
- Sour cream – You’ll mix sour cream with salsa to make the most delicious and creamy salsa dressing.
- Avocado – Diced avocado is such a yummy topping!.
Helpful Tools
How to Make Taco Salad
In a small bowl, combine sour cream and salsa until creamy and smooth. Place in the refrigerator and chill until you are ready to serve your taco salad bowl.
Place ground beef into a large skillet and cook over medium-high heat until no pink remains. Drain off the grease then add in taco seasoning and water and stir well.
Cook until the added water has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Stir occasionally and make sure the taco seasoning is thoroughly incorporated into the ground beef.
In a large serving bowl, add lettuce on the bottom, then a layer of tortilla chips, then taco meat, and top with tomatoes, avocado, corn, and cheese.
Serve taco salad bowl with creamy salsa dressing and chips!
What to serve with this Easy Taco Recipe
Taco salad can be served all on it’s own or with a number of tasty side dishes! Spanish rice would be super yummy and so would air fryer zucchini fries. You can also make some queso dip to eat as an appetizer or even drizzle on top of your salad.
If you want a different dressing option, you could make creamy avocado salsa and use it as a dressing instead of the creamy sour cream salsa.
Extra Toppings for Taco Salad
Even though you’ve got a creamy salsa dressing, pico de gallo would be a delicious topping addition. Mexican street corn dip can be used as a topping or side dish for this meal as well.
Add some fresh cilantro for a bold flavor, or some diced onions, bell peppers, and jalapeño. Omit the avocado and make some crazy good guacamole instead!
Give this salad some extra protein by adding black beans, pinto beans, or charro beans.
How to Store Leftover Taco Salad
It can be difficult to store leftovers of this salad because you’ll want to heat the meat up for leftovers. So, I recommend only building as much taco salad as you plan to eat and storing all the ingredients separately.
You can mix together the cheese, veggies, and lettuce and store together. Then store the ground beef separately. Everything stored in airtight containers will last for 4 days in the fridge.
Can I use different meat in a taco salad?
Make this salad even healthier by using ground turkey or ground chicken instead of beef. You can also make crockpot chicken taco meat to use as the protein in this taco salad! Grilled chicken and steak fajitas would be delicious too.
Pro Tips!
- Make sure to wash the romaine lettuce in cold water and let it completely dry before building your salad!
- Fresh and crunchy restaurant style tortilla chips work best in this recipe.
- Use spicy taco seasoning to give this easy taco salad some kick.
Crunchy and tasty taco salad is one of the best easy dishes ever! You’re going to love it!
More Taco Recipes You’ll Love
- This Taco Ring is one of my favorite things to serve when we’re hosting guests! It always turns out perfect.
- Taco Stroganoff is a tasty twist on a classic dish, you’ll love how easy it is to make!
- Make Taco Casserole when you want easy comfort food!
- Use your Instant Pot and make easy Instant Pot Taco Soup in no time!
Did you make this? If you snap a photo, please be sure tag me on Instagram at @julieseatsandtreats or #julieseatsandtreats so I can see your yummy treat!
Taco Salad
Easy taco salad with all your favorite taco toppings, taco meat on a bed of lettuce and drizzled with an easy homemade dressing.
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- ⅔ cup water
- 1 ounce taco seasoning mix (1 package)
- 6 cups chopped Romaine lettuce
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes halved
- 1 avocado pitted and cubed
- 15 ounces whole kernel sweet corn drained
- 1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese
- 5 ounces tortilla chips
Taco Salad Dressing
- ¾ cup sour cream
- ¾ cup salsa
Instructions
- Make dressing by combining sour cream and salsa in a small bowl. Mix until well combined and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Add ground beef to a large skillet and cook on medium-high heat. Cook the beef until no longer pink and crumbly. Drain grease off.
- Add water and taco seasoning mix to ground beef. Cook until water is evaporated, making sure to stir occasionally, about 5 minutes.
- Assemble as one large salad with lettuce on bottom, followed by tortilla chips, meat, tomatoes, avocado, corn and cheese.
- Serve with chips and dressing.
Tips
It can be difficult to store leftovers of this salad because you’ll want to heat the meat up for leftovers. So, I recommend only building as much taco salad as you plan to eat and storing all the ingredients separately.
You can mix together the cheese, veggies, and lettuce and store together. Then store the ground beef separately. Everything stored in airtight containers will last for 4 days in the fridge.
Nutrition Information
Calories: 546kcal (27%), Carbohydrates: 45g (15%), Protein: 26g (52%), Fat: 32g (49%), Saturated Fat: 11g (69%), Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g, Monounsaturated Fat: 12g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 80mg (27%), Sodium: 892mg (39%), Potassium: 1008mg (29%), Fiber: 8g (33%), Sugar: 9g (10%), Vitamin A: 5603IU (112%), Vitamin C: 30mg (36%), Calcium: 320mg (32%), Iron: 4mg (22%)
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