Taco salads can be really boring, can't they? Ice berg lettuce, salsa, plain beans or ground beef, and cheese in a fried shell? Bleghhh. When I taco salad these days, it's a big production, but it makes for one of the most addictive salads I've ever had. The salad disappears at the end! Have you ever eaten one of those monstrous salads, like at California Dreaming, where it's good but you keep eating and eating and the pile of lettuce and stuff never grows smaller?
When I see the bottom of the salad bowl on this one, I'm actively sad when I'm done eating it. That's so rare with salads. But this one is here to help you enjoy peak summer produce, enjoy your salad, and eat it too.
The best part about this salad is how flexible it is. In some of the photos, you may notice I totally forgot to add the tortilla chips, but it was still great without them! Don't have fresh corn? No problem, thaw out some frozen, or skip it altogether.
Choose your own protein
Continuing to sing the flexible praises of this salad, let's move to the protein part. You can put anything on here. Ground beef, chicken chunks, carnitas, beans, soyrizo (pictured below), or TVP taco meat. There's more on that below the recipe, but as long as your protein is taco-seasoned and slightly warm, it's a winner.
Since Trader Joe's soyrizo is already seasoned, I just heat it up in a small frying pan before adding to the salad. Beans or other less-flavorful meats can be prepared however you would to put them into tacos, heat them up, season with taco seasonings, and call it a day. Let it rest a bit before adding to the salad, because adding blazing hot food to your salad leaves will make them wilt and be much less appealing.
Also, can we talk about Topo Chico? I finally got around to trying it in the past few weeks, and wow. I'm never drinking anything else with Tex-Mex style food again! Plus, I love the mineral aspect. I never feel like I have enough manganese in my diet as is, so this is a great way to get that in without swallowing a pill, finally. Between plain and lemon-lime flavor, I think my favorite is a tie, it just depends what or if I am eating with it. These are not cheap though (nor should they be, given how special and specific the place they come from is!) so I am generally limiting myself to only one or two a week.
A Very Luxe Taco Salad
Ingredients
Taco Salad
- 7 ounces shredded romaine lettuce or a garden style bagged salad mix
- 2 scallions finely diced
- 1 ear fresh corn cut from the cob
- 4 stalks cilantro leaves removed
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 10 cherry tomatoes sliced in half
- 1 handful tortilla chips roughly crunched into bite-sized pieces
- 2-4 ounces cheddar or Monterrey jack cheese shredded
- 6 ounces protein of choice (beans, soy chorizo, TVP taco meat, actual meat, etc)
Taco Salad Dressing
- ½ cup salsa
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- sprinkle salt and cayenne pepper to taste
Instructions
- Mix the salad dressing ingredients together in a jar by whisking.
- If you're cooking the protein, do this now. I used a half package of Trader Joe's soyrizo, heated til warm for 5 minutes. You can also warm up beans, chicken, beef, tofu, or another meat substitute. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Divide the salad greens in two large bowls.
- Sprinkle the greens with the ⅛ teaspoon or less of salt.
- Add in the cilantro leaves and scallions, dividing equally or to preference. Use your hands to lightly toss together.
- Divide the tomatoes, corn kernels, cheese, and tortilla chips between the two bowls.
- Right before serving, add the warm but not hot protein of choice, and half the dressing (or less to taste) to each bowl. Eat immediately.
Using TVP taco "meat"
What you see on my salad here is TVP taco meat. This is a vegan/vegetarian option other than just beans for a taco salad. I used this simple recipe for TVP taco meat from Lettuce Veg Out and loved it. This was my first time experimenting with TVP at home and it was very simple. I used Bob's Red Mill Textured Vegetable Protein.
It also saves pretty well if you make a lot of it and want to use it throughout the week for lots of luxe taco salads. Just heat up however much you want in a small bowl in the microwave for no more than 45 seconds, and add to your salad.
Looking for more salad recipes?
