This is one of our summer time favorites! Salad is almost a necessity during the summer to keep the heat down in the kitchen. We eat this taco salad weekly when it’s hot enough and occasionally throughout the colder months as well. The kids love it despite it being one the most healthy things I could possibly feed them.
I got this recipe from my mom, and because I tweak everything, I have since changed it. I love trying different kinds of beans and lettuces in this, but it is fundamentally the same. My mom made this with a can of kidney beans and a can of pinto beans and no taco seasoning on the meat, just salt and pepper. It was good that way, but I like my tweaks, too.
Allergy Tips:
Milk & Eggs
The only milk and eggs in this is in the Ranch dressing, so if you just leave that out, you’re totally fine. However, the Ranch provides seasoning and moisture to help get all the lettuce down, so it might be missed. There are milk-free and egg-free Ranch dressings. For ease, look for vegan Ranch. This pretty much guarantees it won’t have milk or eggs, but always check the ingredients just to be sure.
If you’re not into vegan Ranch dressing, just about any other dressing will work on this salad. Italian would be great. You can try just drizzling olive oil or avocado oil on top as well. Catalina probably tastes good on it as well.
Corn
Hi corn allergic people! I’ve never addressed you before. The problem for you is the chips. Most tortilla chips are made from corn. However, just earlier this week, I was walking through the health food store, and I found Cassava chips. They were marketed as grain-free tortilla chips. Curious and loving to try new foods, I grabbed them and brought them home. They were delicious! In fact, they are the chips in the pictures on this post.
Taco Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 6-8 leaves lettuce chopped
- 6-8 leaves spinach chopped
- 2 stalks celery sliced
- 2 carrots shredded
- 2 cups cooked beans Kidney, Pinto, or Black
- 1 tbsp taco seasoning
- 1 bag tortilla chips
- cheese shredded
- 1 avocado sliced
- ranch dressing
Optional: tomatoes, diced; and cucumbers, sliced
Instructions
- Brown the ground beef. Season with taco seasoning once the beef is cooked.
- While the beef is cooking, put the lettuce, spinach, celery, carrots, and optional tomatoes and cucumbers in a large serving bowl. Add the beans and beef. Mix.
- Serve salad on top of crushed chips. Top with cheese, dressing, and avocado slices.