The best Healthy Taco Salad Recipe! This low carb taco salad is easy to make and Is covered in the most delicious taco dressing! This post is sponsored by my friends at ButcherBox.
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Making a healthy taco salad with ground beef is possible! With crisp fresh veggies, lean beef, and a tangy yogurt-based dressing, this salad recipe makes a wholesome, nutritious meal.
Add your favorite taco toppings and make this delicious meal in just 25 minutes!
Eating well doesn’t mean that you have to miss out on your favorite meals! Our specialty here at A Clean Eating Couple is making healthier versions of family-favorite recipes, and we think you will love this quick and easy meal!
This is one of my favorite weeknight dinners and I think you’ll love it too!
why healthy taco salad is a favorite
- It’s anything but boring! Some people think salads are boring, but they don’t have to be! We’ve got a ton of healthy options like Italian chopped salad, chicken cobb, and blueberry salad, but this taco salad is too flavorful to be boring!
- Super quick to make. The ground beef takes about 10 minutes to cook, and you can multi-task to chop the veggies at the same time. Or, if you’re a meal prep recipe lover, you may already have some cooked ground beef in your freezer!
- A low carb, high protein meal with fresh vegetables. One serving of this low carb ground beef salad has a whopping 62 grams of protein! It’s hearty, filling, and so good – especially with the yogurt dressing.
We also have healthier recipes for Mexican foods like guacamole, and plenty of taco-flavored options, too! In addition to this healthy taco salad recipe, consider making our healthy taco skillet, crock pot chicken tacos, and taco bake recipes!
Ingredients
To make this taco salad you’ll need:
- olive oil
- ground beef – There’s a lot of flavor in fat, but you don’t want so much that the salad becomes greasy. We like to use a lean blend of ground sirloin; either 85/15 or 90/10.
- romaine lettuce
- toppings: tomatoes, olives, cheddar cheese, avocado, onion
- plain Greek yogurt
- black beans
- store-bought salsa or your favorite homemade salsa recipe
- Taco Seasoning: We like to make our own taco seasoning. It’s easy, and homemade seasoning blends are lower in salt. Otherwise, This is our favorite premade taco seasoning.
- other seasonings – garlic powder, omion powder pepper and lime juice
ingredient substitutions and recipe variations
Olive Oil: You can substitute avocado oil, butter, or ghee.
Ground Beef: We like 85/15 or 80/20 ground beef. Feel free to use leaner ground beef depending on what you like. To reduce the calories and fat, you can make a healthy taco salad with ground turkey or ground chicken.
Taco Seasoning: We like to make our own taco seasoning. It’s easy to make and lower in salt. This is our favorite premade taco seasoning.
Tomatoes:Â You can use any type of tomatoes in this recipe, even canned diced tomatoes or Rotel will work.
Olives, Avocado, Onion: Feel free to skip any of these toppings if you don’t like them!
Beans: You can skip the beans or use pinto or kidney beans in place of black beans.
Salsa: We like to swap out traditional salsa for pico de Gallo when fresh tomatoes are in season. You could use a different flavor, too. Some pineapple mango salsa or fresh corn salsa would be delicious!
Dressing: The dressing is optional on this recipe but it’s really delicious! You could try this Healthy Avocado Ranch Dressing instead or buy a chipotle ranch dressing. Check out these Healthy Salad Dressing Recipes for more ideas!
Variations of Healthy Taco Salad
Lower Carb/Keto Friendly: Skip the beans if you want to make this a keto taco salad.
Vegetarian / Vegan: To make a meatless meal, you can use cooked lentils or a ground beef substitute. You’ll need to adjust your cooking time.
To Make it Lower Calorie: Skip the avocado, cheese, and olives to reduce the calories and fat in the ground beef salad. Instead, you might want to add more tomatoes or peppers.
We used our favorite ButcherBox Ground Beef in this recipe. We’ve been ButcherBox members for over 5 years, and it makes our life so much easier!
ButcherBox delivers high quality meat to your door. Their beef is grass fed and grass finished! They also have organic, free range chicken and wild caught seafood.
Buying high quality meat at the grocery store can get really expensive, really quickly! ButcherBox saves us money and tons of time by being able to skip the store!
If you’ve ever thought of trying ButcherBox, check out this ButcherBox Review where I talk about why we highly recommend it!
cooking tips for the best ground beef taco salad
- Break up the ground beef as it cooks. This tool is great for breaking up ground meat, and it will help you avoid having any large pieces of meat.
- Multi-task to save time! We like to save time by chopping the veggies ahead of time, but you can do it while the ground beef is cooking if that’s easier for you. If that step is already done, use this time to make the taco salad dressing.
- To create a super creamy dressing, combine the ingredients in a food processor or small blender. Of course, a whisk will work, but the consistency may not be as thick as it will be with a blender.
- To prevent soggy leftovers, don’t add your dressing until you’re ready to eat.
Do you love the flavor of tacos as much as we do? If so, try our recipes for taco soup and Mexican potatoes!
How to Make
- Brown ground beef then stir in taco seasoning and water. Stir to coat.
- Evenly divide the toppings and cooked taco meat across 2 salads. Top with homemade taco salad dressing.Â
What to serve with this recipe for Taco Salad
This taco salad is a complete meal on its own! Here are some other things that would pair well with it.
- If you love tacos, check out this Taco Soup Recipe or these Taco Potatoes
- for more protein you can top with Garlic Lime Flank Steak or Chili Lime Shrimp or Salsa Verde Chicken
- other topping ideas: tortilla chips, Marinated Vegetables, Pineapple Mango Salsa or your favorite jarred salsa!
This dressing is also great stirred into our Healthy Chicken Salad for a taco chicken salad!
We’ve linked more of our favorite taco-inspired recipes below.
how to store leftover ground beef salad
If at all possible, enjoy every bit of your meal on the day you make it, because leftover salad just doesn’t taste as good. After it’s dressed, the lettuce and other salad toppings can become wet and soggy.
This being said, you can keep any leftover taco salad in an airtight container in the fridge for about 3 days.
Or, to prevent soggy salad leftovers, just leave the dressing off and let everyone add dressing to their individual serving.
Freezing: You can freeze cooked taco meat for up to 3 months in an airtight container.
Other healthy taco recipes:
Looking for other Healthy Dinners? Check out these Quick Healthy Dinner Recipes! Click here to grab our free healthy 30 minute dinners cookbook.
Healthy Taco Salad Recipe
Ingredients
For the salad:
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
- 1 lb ground beef or ground turkey
- 1 ½ tablespoons taco seasoning
- ¼ cup water
- 8 cups romaine lettuce chopped
- ½ cup cherry tomatoes
- ½ cup black olives halved
- ½ cup cheddar cheese
- ½ cup cubed avocado
- ¼ cup red onion diced
- ½ cup black beans
For the dressing:
- 1/4 cup nonfat greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons jarred salsa
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
- â…› teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 tablespoon lime juice juice of half of a lime
Instructions
- Heat a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add olive oil and heat for one minute. Add ground meat and cook for 12-15 minutes until browned. We love this tool for breaking up ground meat!
- Once the meat has cooked, stir in your taco seasoning and water. Stir to coat the meat in seasonings.
- While the ground meat cooks, prep the dressing.
- Combine the dressing ingredients in a food processor or small blender. Blend until smooth.
- Assemble the salads. Chop romaine and vegetables. Evenly divide the toppings across 2 salads.
- Top the salads with cooked taco meat and dressing. Enjoy!
Yvonne says
This recipe is quick to make, and yummy to eat!!
I especially love the ‘dressing’!! Even tastier after sitting in fridge for a day!!
Margo says
So good, so easy, perfect for family dinner night. My kids (2 & 4) both loved it.
Ashley says
SO GOOD!!! Made this for dinner for a couple nights this week–stored the dressing and meat separate from the salad and it stores super well!
We love this recipe and will be adding it to our regular rotation!