Indulge in our easy taco salad recipe—a delightful fusion of classic taco flavors and fresh salad elements. This vibrant dish is perfect for quick and delicious meals, featuring homemade roasted tomato salsa, canned corn and black beans, creamy avocado, and shredded Tex-Mex cheese. Enjoy the irresistible combination of textures and flavors with every bite.
When the sun is beating down I plan on beating the heat as much as possible with our easy taco salad recipe. It’s a refreshing and almost effortless dish that really is so versatile.
With cooling ingredients like creamy avocado and fresh veggies, this salad becomes the perfect choice for a quick and satisfying meal, keeping you refreshed and satisfied under the summer sun without that bloated feeling you can get from a heavier meal.
What’s even better is having leftovers. The ingredients can easily be used again the next day for lunch in a wrap! Just reheat the meat, and you will have the best burrito wrap ever!
No time to make a roasted tomato salsa, use jarred, although you should try to make the roasted at least once. Especially if you love spicy foods. The salsa incorporates the whole jalapeno, including the seeds. Making it hot! The heat may not be noticeable to some extremist hot sauce lovers, but its afterbite is notable.
The trickiest part of the whole dish is making the best-roasted tomato salsa. Follow the step outlined here, and you will be enjoyed a jarful of the hot stuff! Because it is fresh, it will only keep for a few days in the fridge.
Roasting the ingredients for the salsa
As the name implies, the ingredients are roasted. This means we wash them and peel the garlic and onion as needed. You can use a cooking onion or red onion depending on what’s on hand.
The funny part was that I had specifically purchased a package of jalapenos for the recipe. However, my daughter beat me to them, leaving me with one and a half. I tell you, that is more than enough to have a spicy salsa. If you are insane for heat, amp it up to two or three peppers.
How to Make Our Spicy Oven Roasted Tomato Salsa
The first thing is to know your tomatoes. Not all tomatoes have the best qualities for roasting. I like using Roma tomatoes because they are the sauciest when cooked with fewer seeds.
Please note you can adjust this recipe as needed for your needs. I used five whole garlic cloves; you can use more or less. Slice your red onion in half and then in large pieces. Keep them no smaller than the garlic because they will cook fast under the broiler.
On a cooking sheet, you will put the tomatoes, peppers, garlic, and onion. Coat heavily in olive oil. You may use your hands to completely cover each piece being roasted.
Your oven should be preheated to broil on high. My rack in my oven doesn’t move unless it has to; it’s one of those little annoyances I like to avoid. So my rack was set at the center of the oven for this process.
Put the veggies on the baking tray in the oven under the broiler on high. Watch them for cooking time. It’s going to take 20 mins from start to finish. Halfway through roasting, you will want to pull out the tray and flip the veggies.
Veggies are done when the skins on the tomatoes are split and starting to blacken. Your jalapenos will have some black, and the garlic will look almost burnt.
Remove from the oven to cool. While this is cooling, you can wash and chop the cilantro and measure the cumin. I used only a half teaspoon because I didn’t want it to overpower the freshness of the vegetables. Add more or less to taste.
When the veggies have cooled down, you pop them all into your blender with the cilantro and the cumin. Again I can’t recommend the Ninja enough for its ease of use. The three blades in the center make short work of chopping these veggies into salsa. I only pulsed three or four times before it was finished.
Since your salsa is still warm, I recommend putting it in the fridge to cool whilst you are preparing the rest of the taco salad.
The taco meat preparation.
Here is a where you can be fancy if you choose and use your own taco spice blend. I find it easier to use Old El Paso for one package of meat; I use two packets. One mild and one hot mixed in makes a lovely flavorful taco meat.
That said, a whole package of hamburger cooked up can be a lot. So if you don’t want to face the leftovers-albeit yummy leftovers- I suggest freezing some so you can dethaw and use them for your next taco night.
Everything else for this salad is simply food prep. Canned black beans and canned corn should be drained before serving. Since this is a cold taco salad, there is no need to heat them first.
Sliced-up iceberg lettuce is an easy fix. You can save any that is not eaten for sandwiches or a salad the following night. I also like to have diced tomatoes, even though you have tomato salsa, as they act as a cooling agent on the palette.
We also love fresh avocado and, of course, Tex-Mex cheese. Sprinkle your taco salad with a bit of chopped green onion. Add to it a dollop of sour cream with a side of fresh homemade tomato salsa, and you’re ready to dig in!
The best part of taco night is, of course, the company you share it with. But also the variance that you can add to the meal.
Substitution ideas for taco salad add-ins.
Instead of an avocado cut up, use an avocado crema on top.
Change the meat from hamburger to chicken.
Add a dollop of con queso instead of sour cream.
Use refried beans instead of black.
Easy Taco Salad Dinner With Roasted Tomato Salsa
Equipment
- 1 Frying Pan
- 1 Baking Tray
- Blender
- 1 knife
Ingredients
Roasted Tomato Salsa
- 6 Roma Tomato
- 1½ Jalapenos With Seeds
- ½ Red Onion
- 1 Lemon Juiced
- 1 Small Bunch Cilantro
- 7 Cloves Garlic
- Olive Oil
Taco Salad
- 1 Pkg Ground Beef
- 2 Pkg Old El Paso Taco Seasoning Mix I used 1 hot and 1 Mild
- 1 Sm Iceberg Lettuce Sliced thinnly
- 2 Med Tomatoes Cut into bite sized pieces
- 4 Ripe Avocado Peel and cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 Can Whole Kernel Corn Drained
- 1 Can Black Beans Drained
- 3 Green Onion Sliced
- Tex Mex Cheese
- Sour Cream
- Corn Chips
Instructions
Roasted Tomato Salsa
- Wash tomatoes and jalapeno and dry.
- Peel garlic and cut up onion.
- Put the onion, garlic, tomato, and jalapeno onto baking sheet that has olive oil liberally applied.
- Using your hands completely coat the veg with the olive oil.
- Roast veg for 20 mins under the broiler set on HI. Remove from oven and flip after 10 mins. Return to the oven for remaining 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven. Tomatoes will have blackened slightly and skins will have split. Garlic will look almost burnt.
- Let cool. Then put all the ingredients into the blender with the cilantro and lemon juice. Pulse for a few seconds.
- Pour into glass jar to use as needed for dinner. The rest will keep in the fridge for up to one week.
Taco Salad
- Brown the ground beef as you would to make taco meat.
- Add the required amount of water that the taco seasoning mix requires before adding the meat. Cook until meat is fully cooked. Remove from heat.
- While the meat is cooking open and drain the black beans and corn. Put each in a separate bowl if serving as a make your own salad. If you are making each salad up for people you can mix them together.
- Chop up the tomato, green onion, avocado and iceberg lettuce.
- Put all the ingredients on the table for family to assemble their own or you can assemble starting with a bed of the lettuce.
- The ingredients will keep in the fridge for up to three days covered. NOTE Avocado will brown so you can apply lemon or lime juice to maintain it's freshness in the fridge.
- You can use the leftover taco salad ingredients to make lunch wraps for school or work lunches!