CHEF PRIMERABAR PRIMERABAKER PRIMERAsoon
ENES

Taco Salad

Vegetables & Salads · Latin American & Caribbean

17 ingredients · 25 minutes · 2 servings

Taco Salad
Cook Now

941kcal59.2g protein43.6g fat80.7g carbs~$3.94/ serving*Estimates computed from the ingredient list; cost uses average US supermarket prices. Not a substitute for packaging measurements or your receipt.

Contains dairy · sometimes contains gluten — check the label

Restrictions

ContainsdairyIt is in an ingredient you cannot leave out.

Sometimes contains — check the labelgluten (chili (powder), chips tortilla)Some brands have it, some do not. The recipe cannot tell, so this is the one you check yourself.

Diets
No porkNo alcohol

Worked out from the ingredient list. It knows nothing about brands, shared equipment or cross contamination, and it is not a certification — if you have an allergy, you still have to read the label.

Ingredients

Servings:
1 lbground beef (80/20)
1 tspvegetable oil
1 unitonion (finely diced)
2 clovegarlic (minced)
1 tbspchili powder
1 tspcumin (ground)
½ tsppaprika, smoked
¾ tspsalt
⅓ cupwater
¾ cupblack beans (drained, rinsed)
4 cupromaine lettuce (shredded)
1 unittomato (diced, seeded)
½ cupcheddar (coarsely grated)
2 cuptortilla chips (broken into large shards)
¼ cupsour cream
⅓ cupsalsa
1 unitlime (juice)

Optional

Not counted above. The dish works without them.

1 unitavocado (diced)
1 unitjalapenos (sliced)
¼ cupcilantro (chopped)
2 unitscallion (sliced thin)
½ cupsweet corn (charred kernels)
¼ cupcotija (crumbled)
1 tsphot sauce

Steps

  1. Sear7 min
    medium-high, undisturbed then broken up
    vegetable oil + ground beef pressed into one flat layer — leave it alone until the underside is brown before breaking it up, because the water that comes out of stirred beef pools and drops the pan below browning temperature
  2. Saute4 min
    medium
    + onion + garlic, cooked in the rendered fat until the onion turns translucent at the edges; add the garlic in the last minute so it perfumes rather than scorches
  3. Toast1 min
    medium, stirring constantly
    + chili powder + cumin + smoked paprika + salt, moved through the hot fat for a full minute — dry ground chili is mostly fat-soluble, and spice thrown in with the water later stays flat and dusty
  4. Simmer5 min
    medium-low, until nearly dry
    + water + black beans, scraping the fond off the pan bottom, and reduce until the liquid coats the meat instead of running off it = taco filling; a wet filling will wilt the lettuce into slime within a minute
  5. Whisk2 min
    off heat
    sour cream + salsa + lime juice, until it pours in a thin ribbon = dressing; the lime acid thins the cream, so add it last and stop when it moves like buttermilk
  6. Rest3 min
    filling off heat
    let the filling drop to warm before it meets the greens — straight from the pan it steams the lettuce; fully cold, the cheese never softens
  7. Top2 min
    assemble at the table
    lettuce + tomato as the base, then warm filling + cheddar + dressing, and only then the tortilla chips folded through — the chips go in last and get eaten immediately, since they turn to paste about four minutes after the dressing touches them