This Easy Taco Salad is a healthy-ish salad the whole family will love. Made with ground beef, fresh corn, black beans, and topped with spicy Doritos and a creamy southwest dressing. This is sure to become one of your favorite 30 minute meals!
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Why you'll love it
It's quick and easy! You can have dinner on the table in about 30 minutes. This recipe relies on quick cooking ground beef so you don't have to spend a lot of time standing over the stove.
It's made with easy to find ingredients! No need to search far and wide for these easy to find ingredients. Ground beef, canned black beans, and poblano peppers are readily available at most grocery stores.
It's a full of Tex Mex flavor that the whole family will love! This recipe is loaded with all the Mexican inspired flavors we all know and love like black beans, corn, and poblano peppers. The dressing adds a nice touch of lime and the Spicy Doritos add a nice little kick.
Ingredients
This recipe call for my homemade Easy Taco Seasoning, but you can substitute with one package of store bought.
Step by Step Instructions
Make salad dressing by combining salsa, ranch (bottled or this homemade recipe) sour cream, and one tablespoon fresh lime juice. Remove corn from the cob, chop poblano pepper and garlic.
Heat oil over medium heat and cook chopped poblano and garlic until softened-about 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium high. Crumble ground beef into pan and sprinkle in the taco seasoning. Cook until meat is no longer pink.
Add one can drained black beans and 1 cup fresh (or canned) corn. Mix until well combined and heated through. Taste and adjust salt and pepper. Top torn lettuce with taco meat mixture, toppings like avocado and tomatoes, and drizzle with salad dressing.
If you're looking for other delicious Tex Mex salad dressings, try this Avocado Ranch Dressing!
Expert tips
This Easy Taco Salad is best with a heartier lettuce such as iceberg or romaine. I like to combine the two and add a few leaves of green or red leaf as well. Feel free to use the bagged version, or tear your own.
Not into black beans? Swap out with whatever your favorite is...pinto, navy, kidney. If you prefer to leave the beans out all together, then add about half a pound more of ground beef.
Does ground turkey work well as taco meat? Yes, it does. I use it all the time in place of ground beef.
Doritos not your thing? No problem. You can leave them out. Many different varieties of chips will work like corn tostada chips, Fritos (any flavor) or just plain croutons!
The dressing works great as a dip too!
Did you know that black beans are full of good for you fiber? Find out more about the importance of fiber from Tufts University!
More Healthy-ish Salads you'll like
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Easy Taco Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
Taco Meat
- 2 teaspoons mild flavored oil such as vegetable or canola or cooking spray on a nonstick skillet
- 1 pound lean ground beef such as ground sirloin
- 1 poblano pepper chopped
- 2 cloves garlic chopped
- 3 tablespoons Easy Taco Seasoning or 1 package store bought
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon pepper or to taste
Salad
- 2- 11 ounce bags romaine or iceberg lettuce or a mix of the two
- 2 tomatoes diced
- 1-2 cups shredded cheddar pepper jack, or Mexican blend cheese
- 1-2 avocados diced or sliced; optional
- 3 cups crushed Doritos Spicy, Nacho Cheese or Cool Ranch
Salad Dressing
- ¼ cup bottled salsa such as Pace (not chunky style)
- ½ cup ranch dressing bottled or homemade
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
Instructions
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook chopped poblano pepper and garlic until soft, about 5 minutes.
- Increase heat to medium high. Crumble ground beef into pan. Add taco seasoning and cook until browned and no longer pink.
- Add drained black beans and corn to beef mixture. Cook over medium heat until heated through.
- Add lettuce to a large salad bowl. Top with taco meat, cheese, avocado, tomatoes, and crushed chips.
- Drizzle dressing over and serve immediately.
Salad Dressing
- Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. Cover leftovers in a tightly fitting container and store in refrigerator for one to two days.
Notes
- This Easy Taco Salad is best with a heartier lettuce such as iceberg or romaine. I like to combine the two and add a few leaves of green or red leaf as well. Feel free to use the bagged version, or tear your own.
- Not into black beans? Swap out with whatever your favorite is…pinto, navy, kidney. If you prefer to leave the beans out all together, then add about half a pound more of ground beef.
- Does ground turkey work well as taco meat? Yes, it does. I use it all the time in place of ground beef.
- Doritos not your thing? No problem. You can leave them out. Many different varieties of chips will work like corn tostada chips, Fritos (any flavor) or just plain croutons!
- The dressing works great as a dip too!
Ramona
This is screaming out my name - my kinda salad all day long! all those flavours, definitely hit the jackpot. Yumm, yumm. I cannot wait to make it, thank you so much for sharing this gorgeour recipe Nikole.
Nikole
Thank you Ramona! Yes to salads all day long! Thank you for your comments!
Brian Jones
Oh my that looks so good, definitely my kinda salad, hearty, full of flavour but still a little 'lighter'.
Nikole
Thanks Brian!
Jacqueline Debono
Love the idea of all the flavours of tacos in a salad! This would make a great weeknight meal or weekend lunch!
Nikole
This is our go to weeknight dinner-quick, a little lighter, and yum! Thanks for your comments!
Fiorenza
Such a simple and fanciful salad, interesting the addition of chipotles, that's a good idea. I'll give it a try soon, thank you for sharing!
Nikole
I happened to have some leftover chipotles around and decided to add them in. I loved the extra spice and earthiness it gave the meat! Thank you for your comment!
Susan @ Simply Sundays
Way to step up taco salad! I love the ranch-salsa dressing and the addition of chipotles!
Nikole
Thanks Susan!
Lee
Looks good!