Totally ’80s Taco salad
Totally ’80s Taco salad
Why ’80s? Because for us midwestern white folk, this was the concept of taco salad introduced to us back then. Very likely by some other midwestern white folk. Dontcha know.
Variations often include black olives, corn, Frito chips or Doritos, Catalina or French/Western dressing, or the kind I made from scratch below, with Ketchup. Ketchup is considered “spicy” by some Minnesotans and Wisconsonites. You heard it here first, probably. Yah, sure. Yew betcha. You could probably laugh and point at this recipe and call it gnarly, but it’d be your loss, because, yes, as trashy as it may sound, it’s DELICIOUS. So either make it and be totally rad, or get outta here.
(for LC/keto, leave out kidney beans and chips and just use low carb salsa instead of making the dressing OR modify dressing as noted)
1/2 lb ground beef, browned
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder (leave off or reduce, for less heat)
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup water
1/2 head cabbage, chopped (I used green & red)
1/2 head romaine lettuce, chopped
2 Roma tomatoes, diced
1/2 white onion, diced
1 carrot, shredded or julienne-cut
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup cooked kidney beans *
1/2 cup crushed tortilla chips *
Brown the meat and drain off excess fat. Break it up into small pieces with a wooden or silicone spatula, and season with the cumin, chili powder, oregano, salt & pepper to taste. Add the water and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the meat becomes more tender and saucy. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage and slice in half. Then turn the cabbage over and trim out the core. Slice the cabbage into thin pieces and then cut in half. Seed and chop tomatoes (I leave mine seeded), dice onions, reserving half for the dressing. Shred the cheese, rinse and drain the beans (I cook mine from dry).
Mix the vegetables and meat together gently, into a medium-large salad bowl. Add the dressing (see notes) and stir to coat. Then add the crushed chips and cheddar cheese, and stir again. I used a 4-quart bowl. This made about 10 cups of salad, once dressed.
You could skip the sweet dressing and just use salsa and sour cream at the table, too.
If serving later, you might want to leave off the following until ready to serve: the cheese and chips, which both get soggy, and the tomatoes, which make the whole dish a bit soggy if you’re not into sog. I personally think this salad is always best the next day, no matter what!
Dressing recipe:
1/2 onion, chopped coarsely
1/2 cup ketchup *
1/2 TB Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 c honey *
1/3 c brown sugar *
4/3 tsp salt
1/2 tps black pepper
1/2 cup light olive oil
Place first 6 ingredients into food processor and whirl together (I used the Worcestershire and vinegar to get the last 1/2 cup of ketchup out of the bottle!). Taste, then add salt & pepper and taste again. Measure out the oil and turn the food processor back on, then drizzle in the oil slowly, with a fine stream. This batch was too much for me, so I bottled up what I didn’t use (hence the bottle in the pic. I recycle!).
Notes:
To save time on chopping all that cabbage, I cheat sometimes and get the bagged coleslaw mix for stuff like this (also sometimes sold as “Asian” or “Southwest” chopped salad kits by Fresh Express brand, for under $4 for a pretty big bag. I buy these when they are on sale for BOGO or 2/$4).
Items marked * are optional if following a LC/keto diet. For the ketchup, use low carb variety, if desired, or make your own. Stevia or other favorite sweetener and sugar-free brown sugar substitute can be used in place of the honey/brown sugar.
The dressing recipe might make WAY more than you need, for this batch of salad. It made about 10 oz for me, which is more than I needed. I honestly only used just under 1/4 cup to dress my salad, hence the bottle pic! If you are doubling the salad recipe up top, you may use all of it.
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I grew up on this but mine was just seasoned ground beef, lettuce, tomatoes, kidney beans, and crushed Doritos with Italian Dressing.
Use that red Catalina dressing or it’s not taco salad around here.
And this was always showing up at potlucks and holiday dinners.
I added the cabbage, it was pretty much iceberg lettuce growing up for me, too.
Good choice. Iceberg is just awful. It’s like a tasteless sponge soaked in water.
Had something very similar as an 80s kid. Memories.
Tubular!
IDK…lol