Favorite Easy Taco Salad with Ground Beef

Taco salad can be as simple as seasoned ground beef plus all your favorite taco fillings! Perfect for warm summer days, or pretty much anytime, this delicious taco salad recipe adapts easily to special diets and fills everyone up with nourishing ingredients.

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Tacos, taco salad, burrito bowls, you name it, if it’s southwest, tex-mex, Mexican-inspired, or anywhere in that zone, it is a hit around here! Especially if beef is involved.

Seriously, we have taco salad at least once a week in the summer, and often even in the winter! Sometimes two or three times. Nobody complains, even the third time!

Of course, you can make it all different ways– vary the meat, use different toppings, stick rice, beans, or both under the meat, offer different salsas, serve with or without dressing…

If I serve this exact taco salad three times in a week, plus leftovers for lunch, people happily load up. And some weeks that happens! This is a super easy “recipe”, the components are simple to adapt to different tastes and dietary needs, and… everyone loves it.

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Why You Need This Taco Salad Recipe

It’s true that you don’t need a recipe for taco salad. It’s salad! Freewheeling works fine, and you don’t need a lot of careful measuring or even proportions. That is one of the beauties of salads, and dinner salads in particular. I usually let people dish up their own so they get just what they want.

The one who doesn’t want onion at all is happy this way. So is the one who seriously scoops out half a cup of raw onion! Want it spicy? Throw more spices in the meat and serve spicier salsa! Or mild, or none at all.

So, adaptability is a feature. Here is what we like about taco salad:

• adaptable to individual tastes and special diets
• use what you have, and don’t worry about what you don’t
• no weird ingredients, even in the seasoning
• filling, with plenty of protein, fiber, and fat
• nourishing
• using ground beef, the meat is fairly affordable (chicken and pork work, too!)
• most of the time, the ingredients are already on hand– so we can make it last-minute
• it’s easy to make plenty so we have leftovers
• most importantly– taco salad is delicious!

How to Make Taco Salad

While you can use whatever meat you prefer, we love ground beef. Season it well, and it is just delicious, and more affordable than other cuts of beef. Change the quantities as needed– I used 2 pounds here, but I often do 3 or even 4 so we have plenty of extremely popular leftovers.

Break up your beef and brown it. Measure seasonings out; you could use prepared taco seasoning that suits your tastes and dietary needs, or do something like this.

You can find all sorts of combos and proportions of taco seasoning recipes, or just dump things in until you like them. You could even mix up a big batch and store it for quicker seasoning. I keep meaning to do that…

Until I do, I keep it simple! For each pound of meat, add 1 teaspoon each:

• salt (get a really nourishing, mineral-rich one– here I used Redmond’s)
• garlic powder
• onion powder
• smoked paprika (regular is fine, too)
• oregano
• cumin
• chili powder

**I like to use pretty much the same lineup of seasonings for chicken fajita strips!

Be generous with your seasoning! Using liberal amounts is a hallmark of great tasting food, setting it apart from pretty good food. Especially with something like ground meat that benefits from a little enhancement.

Add others you like, such as pepper, cayenne, red pepper flakes, etc., play with the quantities, or leave something out. Fresh onion and garlic are also a good option.

Stir all the seasonings in, let the beef cook through, and turn off the heat so it isn’t blazing hot when you stick in in with the lettuce and such.

Chop the other goodies

Salad is salad! You have a lot of leeway to change the specific ingredients and quantities. I didn’t chop many tomatoes or olives, because I know only a few of us want them. If I serve this to company, I do plenty of everything! Such as:

• lettuce
• tomatoes
• onions– red, green, flash-pickled, fermented, whatever
• avocado
• olives
• cheese– this was cheddar, but jack, queso fresco, etc. or whatever you like

I served fresh salsa left from another meal, but jarred salsa is also great. For extra gut benefits, make fermented salsa a few days ahead. I also offered lime wedges, which we don’t usually do.

You don’t need dressing with the seasoned meat, salsa, and other stuff, but you can add a dressing if you like. Ranch dressing is good; make it with avocado, salsa, or chili powder for a tasty twist. A simple vinaigrette works, and so does something like Catalina.

This time, I made something vaguely like Catalina or French dressing with ketchup remnants whisked with olive oil and a little extra apple cider vinegar. Most people skipped the dressing, and there is plenty of flavor without.

Other things you might add:

• jalapeño slices– fresh, fermented, or pickled
• bell peppers
• tortilla chips
• sour cream
• guacamole
• chopped cilantro
• beans– canned, cooked, or refried
• cooked corn

Questions and Answers

How can I make this dairy free?

Skip the cheese, or use a nondairy version you like. Don’t use sour cream, or stick with a nondairy one. If you want ranch dressing, try this recipe or this one.

Is this taco salad recipe GAPS compliant?

It can be! Stick with aged cheeses, like cheddar, not queso fresco. Choose salsa, guacamole, and any dressing carefully, or make your own. Skip anything like chips, canned beans, corn ,etc. Also don’t use any potentially GAPS friendly toppings like tomatoes that you aren’t tolerating well yet.

What other meats could I use?

Pretty much whatever you like! Other ground meats will swap in for the ground beef easily. You can also use shredded beef, pork chicken, turkey, or whatever you like. Season them a bit if you like!