Taco Salad

Posted by on October 6, 2010 in Blog, Family Favorites, Meat & Poultry, Salad, Turkey | 11 comments

I can’t believe it was over 100 degrees in So. Cal. last week and I had our A/C blasting. This morning, I woke up to pouring rain and I pulled on my warm bathrobe, fuzzy socks, and I’m thinking about hot cocoa. Crazy! It’s been drizzling the past few days here, and it’s cold (for my standards). Flip-flops one day, Ugg’s another day. Such is life in So. Cal….

Given all of the Japanese and Asian foods I’ve been making, I decided to give the family a break and make taco salad for dinner.  This is an all-time favorite childhood salad recipe that my mom learned from her good friend, Junko-san.  I’m SO thankful she learned this recipe because it was one of my favorite non-Japanese meals.

My mom and her friends made taco salad for potlucks, picnics, and parties.  One of the best things about getting together with our family friends for a meal was the guarantee that one of the moms made taco salad.

Perhaps one of the reasons this taco salad is such a hit among kids is because the star ingredient is DORITOS.  Yes, DORITOS.  My mom never allowed chips on the dinner table when I was growing up, but once in a while we could eat Doritos for dinner so long as it was in taco salad. Such a treat!

The taco salad works best if you use Nacho Cheese flavor Doritos, or Cool Ranch flavor, but by all means experiment and try another flavor.

I’m keeping this post short today (shocking, I know) as we are spending the day with Bachan and Jichan, likely indoors to stay out of the rain!

Taco Salad

  • 1 pound ground beef / ground turkey
  • 1 package Lawry’s Taco Seasoning
  • 1 head of romaine lettuce (or 2 romaine hearts)
  • 1 avocado
  • 1 tomato
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 cup can corn
  • 1 cup black olives
  • 1 stalk chopped green onion (or 1/2 red onion)
  • 2 – 3 cups Doritos
  • 1/3 cup shredded cheese (Mexican blend)
  • Catalina or French salad dressing

Before I get started on the recipe, I should mention that any combination of salad ingredients works for our version of taco salad so long as you’ve got lettuce, meat, Catalina dressing and DORITOS. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

Saute ground beef, drain oil, then add Lawry’s Taco Seasoning according to the package directions.  For this batch of taco meat, I used 1 1/2 pounds of lean ground beef and I also chopped up 1/2 an onion and some garlic and sauteed this with the meat for added flavor.  By adding extra meat, the taco flavor is more mild (which I actually like) and the meat is less saucy, yet it’s still packed with a lot of flavor. Sometimes I’ll freeze the taco meat so I can make taco wontons later.

While the meat cools, chop lettuce, avocado, tomato, and green onions.  The salad tastes better with red onion but since I didn’t have any, I used green onions.  I made carrot shavings using a vegetable peeler.  For the avocado, I squeezed some fresh lemon juice on it so it wouldn’t turn brown.  I considered chopping up the olives, but I kept them whole and it tasted great.

 

In a large bowl, add lettuce, fixin’s, meat, cheese and salad dressing.  Toss gently.

The last step is to add the Doritos, just before serving.  This keeps the chips crisp.  Toss gently.

I like to garnish the tossed taco salad with a little cheese and extra chips on top.  Bebe Dada and Big Onechan seem to like this.

Taco salad…  a great excuse to eat chips for dinner! I don’t make this often, but once in a while it’s a nice treat.

Cheers!

Judy | bebe mama

 

Taco Salad
Author: 
Recipe type: Salad
 
Ingredients
  • 1 pound ground beef / ground turkey
  • 1 package seasoning
  • 1 head of romaine lettuce (or 2 romaine hearts)
  • 1 avocado
  • 1 tomato
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 cup can corn
  • 1 cup black olives
  • 1 stalk chopped green onion (or ½ red onion)
  • 2 - 3 cups Doritos (your choice of flavor!)
  • ⅓ cup shredded cheese (Mexican blend)
  • Catalina or French salad dressing
Instructions
  1. Saute ground beef, drain oil, then add taco seasoning. Note: I chopped up ½ an onion and some garlic and sauteed this with the meat for added flavor.
  2. Chop lettuce, avocado, tomato, and green onions.  The salad tastes better with red onion but since I didn't have any, I used green onions.
  3. Make carrot shavings using a vegetable peeler.
  4. For the avocado, I squeezed some fresh lemon juice on it so it wouldn't turn brown.
  5. Chop olives or leave them whole.
  6. In a large bowl, add lettuce, all the fixings, meat, cheese and salad dressing.  Toss gently.
  7. The last step is to add the Doritos, just before serving.  This keeps the chips crisp.  Toss gently. Note: I typically use Nacho Cheese or Cool Ranch flavors.
  8. I like to garnish the tossed taco salad with a little shredded cheese and extra chips on top.

11 Comments