Taco Salad

November 19, 2012

Every once in a while I’ll treat myself to “The Close Talker” salad with tofu from Moe’s (Welcome to Moe’s!). I eat these maybe 2-4 times a year and always enjoy them. The other day I had a craving hit for tacos, but wanted something a little healthier so I decided to mimic “The Close Talker” at home!

Taco salad with all the toppings!

I decided to make the salad with ground beef this time around because that was what I was craving, but you can make this with anything: tofu, steak, chicken—it would all be tasty! Sadly, I couldn’t find any black olives at the grocery store (say what?!) and I skipped the cucumber this time around, though it would have been nice to include in the pico de gallo.

Pico de gallo ingredients (sorry, no pic of the salad ingredients).

Taco Salad

(Pico de gallo recipe from recipes.sparkpeople.com, posted by Metalfinger2u)

Serves 4-5

Ingredients

For pico de gallo:

3 large tomatoes, diced

1 medium sized onion, diced

1/4 bunch cilantro (more or less depending on taste), chopped

juice of half a lemon

1/2 teaspoon garlic, minced

1 teaspoon salt

2 jalapenos, diced (use gloves when chopping!)

For the salad:

5-6 hearts of romaine lettuce

l pound of ground beef

1 onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

shredded cheddar cheese

pico de gallo

1 packet taco seasoning (I used about 1/2 to 3/4 of a packet)

tortilla chips

Pico de gallo

Directions

For the pico de gallo:

1. Mix all ingredients together. That’s it! Easy! I made this one day in advance so the flavors could meld.

For the taco salad:

1. Prepare the ground beef according to the directions on the taco seasoning packet, adding onion and garlic when browning.

2. While beef cooks, chop romaine lettuce and put on a plate.

3. Top with toppings.

4. Add some tortilla chips and enjoy!