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Today, I have a simple chopped taco salad for you made with an easy homemade Catalina dressing. Taco salad is a staple salad that we enjoy often. I love that it is as easy to make and regular tacos. You are just swapping tortillas out for lettuce .
The base of the salad is a combination of iceberg lettuce and Romaine lettuce. The meat is just ground beef prepared with a package of taco seasoning. You could swap the beef out for ground turkey if you want to. You could even use my too easy chicken taco meat in this salad too. That way you can let the slow cooker do the cooking of the meat for you. All you have to do is shred the meat when it is done cooking.
Next, is the toppings. This salad includes tomatoes, shredded cheese, corn, pinto beans, sliced olives and diced avocado. It’s a delicious combination for this salad. However, feel free to adjust the salad for you family’s tastes. Or for what you have in the house. I love the color of the pinto beans for this salad, but any canned beans you have on hand will work.
Last is a simple homemade Catalina dressing. You can make things simple and just go from a bottle version from the store, but It doesn’t take much more effort to make the dressing yourself. It’s as easy as adding your ingredients into your blender and blend until smooth. That’s it. You make the dressing with ketchup, red wine vinegar, onion, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, olive oil, and sugar. You can even swap the sugar for your favorite sugar substitute to reduce the calories.
Chopped Taco Salad
- Total Time: 28 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 pkg taco seasoning
- ½ head romaine lettuce, chopped
- ½ head iceberg lettuce, chopped
- ½ cup cilantro chopped
- 1 cup shredded cheese (cheddar, Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack, etc.)
- 1 cup frozen corn, thawed if frozen
- 1 (6-ounce) can olives, sliced
- 1 (15-ounce) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
- 2 roma or plum tomatoes, chopped
- 1-2 avocados, chopped
- Crushed tortilla chips
Dressing:
- ¼ cup ketchup
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar
- ¼ cup onion, finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ¼ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large, skillet, brown the ground beef. Drain off any excess grease. Add in package of taco seasoning according to package instructions and follow directions for cooking.
- For the dressing, combine all the dressing ingredients together in a blender and process until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to serve. The dressing can be made up 3-4 days in advance.
- To serve, divide lettuce between 6 bowls. Top each bowl with 1/6 of the other ingredients creating a row of each ingredient with the exception of the tortilla chips. Then let everyone add their own dressing and crushed tortilla tips.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Category: Beef
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: Mexican
This recipe is adapted from Mel’s Kitchen Café.
