The Ultimate Taco Salad

Here’s the tastiest taco salad recipe: a healthy and easy dinner everyone loves — and customizable for any diet! Don’t miss this hack for a quick salad dressing.

Here’s an easy dinner recipe that seems to please just about everyone: Taco Salad! This Tex-Mex salad has been impressing for decades, and it gives us all the 1990’s nostalgic vibes. Here’s why we love this concept: it’s customizable for any eater and easy to scale up for a crowd. In fact, my mother in law often whips this up to feed anywhere from 4 to 20 people, all with different diets. Here are the tricks to how to make the best taco salad…that’s pretty darn healthy, too!

Essential ingredients in the best taco salad recipe

There are many ways to make a taco salad; it’s more of a concept than an exact recipe. The original idea is Tex-Mex in origin and started back in the 1960’s. Here we’ll cover all the essential parts of a taco salad, then you can customize it to your heart’s content! With that in mind, here are the essential ingredients in a taco salad recipe:

Taco meat: To fit many diets, try either this killer vegan taco meat or traditional ground beef.
Taco salad dressing: There’s a secret to the easiest dressing…scroll down.
Veggies: You’ve got to have romaine lettuce, canned corn, and either tomatoes or pico de gallo.
Optional toppers: Beans, cheese, avocado, etc are all optional
Tortilla chips: Chips are absolutely required for a taco salad recipe: both for the crunch and the corn flavor. Do not omit!

For the taco meat: use vegan or ground beef!

This taco salad recipe is flexible enough to feed any eater. Around here we eat a lot of vegetarian and vegan recipes. But when we serve a crowd, we want a concept that works for everyone. This recipe is a classic taco salad, vegan taco salad, and healthy taco salad: all in one! That, in our minds, makes this one stellar meal worth putting in your regular rotation. Here are the two types of taco meat to use, vegan or classic:

Walnut taco meat is incredibly delicious. No judgement zone, here. This walnut taco meat might be a little different, but it receives rave reviews from meat eaters and vegetarians alike! Walnuts, mushrooms and spices make a texture that’s incredibly similar to real meat. (Promise. Try it!)
Or, use ground beef. The recipe below has instructions for how to cook the ground beef. In fact, you’ll use the exact same spices as the meatless taco meat.

Vegan Taco Meat | Walnut taco meat — Walnut taco meat is surprisingly delicious. But feel free to go classic!

Taco salad dressing: a quick and easy hack!

Our other favorite thing about this taco salad recipe: the dressing! Why make a fancy dressing when you can mix together a few fridge staples? Here’s what to mix together for this taco salad dressing:

Red salsa
Greek yogurt (or purchased vegan yogurt)
Sour cream (skip or use vegan mayo)
Hot sauce

The sour cream adds a needed richness to the Greek yogurt, making a creamy, zingy dressing that takes no time at all to put together! You can also use mayo if you prefer. For vegan or dairy free, just use purchased vegan versions of these dairy products. You can also try our Cilantro Sauce or Chipotle Sauce. But this dressing is so tasty…essentially what we put on our taco salad anyway, but better.

Taco salad toppings

Once you’ve got the taco meat and dressing, it’s on to the toppings! There are some taco salad toppings that we believe are required, and then lots of optional ideas. We’ll start with what we think is absolutely required, then mention a few other ways to customize it:

Romaine hearts: Required! We like crunchy romaine hearts if you can find them, but you can also use a romaine lettuce head and make sure to mix in those crunchy inner leaves.
Canned corn: Something about the canned corn just makes it right. Trust us.
Organic corn chips: Chips are 100% required for crunch and flavor. For a healthy taco salad, look for organic corn chips that have only 3 ingredients: corn, oil, and salt! Check the back of the package when you’re shopping.
Tomatoes or pico de gallo: A tomato element is also required: chopped tomatoes or pico.
Avocado or guacamole: Use whatever you prefer. This starts to get into optional territory.
Other ideas: The sky’s the limit! Try our easy black beans, refried beans, or shredded cheddar cheese. Also add a zing with hot sauce, taco sauce or pickled jalapenos!

Make it a meal!

Taco salad is a complete meal in itself: the original bowl meal! But you may want to add a few sides if you’re entertaining or serving a larger crowd. Here are some ideas:

Corn muffins: Try these Classic Cornbread Muffins: like the Jiffy box, but homemade!
Cornbread: This Easy Vegan Cornbread always gets high marks, as does our Best Homemade Cornbread
Chips & salsa or guacamole: Put less chips in your salad so you can enjoy them with salsa or homemade guacamole
Margaritas: Why not? Try all these Best Margarita Recipes, from classic to jalapeno.

And that’s it! Let us know if you try it…especially that vegan taco meat (wondering what you’ll think!).

More Tex Mex recipes

Love Tex Mex cuisine? Here are a few more stand-out recipes you’d love:

Try Tex Mex Migas, the best way to use up tortillas
Mix up a highball of Ranch Water, a bubbly drink with lime and tequila
Make a big bowl of Texas Caviar (Cowboy Caviar), a colorful vegetable chip dip
Fry up a load of Homemade Tortilla Chips

This taco salad recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.