Free: Healthy 5-Ingredient Meals Ebook
Get It NowIn my kitchen, busy days often mean easy, one-pan dinners that I can assemble in a flash. Simple salads are perfect for checking those boxes, but of course you still need some protein in there to make it a full meal. That’s where my easy and healthy taco salad recipe with ground beef comes in. It’s so fresh, flavorful, and uses simple ingredients — you’re going to love it!
Why You’ll Love My Taco Salad Recipe
- All the right flavors and textures – Perfectly seasoned taco meat, sweet tomatoes, crisp lettuce, creamy avocado, cheddar cheese… there’s so much I love about this ground beef salad. There’s a reason it’s my most popular salad recipe with readers!
- Fresh, simple ingredients – You can find them at any grocery store and feel good about eating them. (They are also naturally low carb and gluten-free.) Not to mention, what I use for the dressing is the easiest solution ever.
- Totally customizable – Use whatever you have on hand, or swap ingredients based on what you like.
- Quick to make – Possibly the best part of this taco salad recipe is that the whole thing is on the table in 20 minutes. The only cooking involved is browning the ground beef on the stove. So simple.
- Quick and easy one-bowl dinner – Also known as, one of my favorite kind of meals! No need to fuss with assembling individual toppings on each taco.
Ingredients & Substitutions
This section explains how to choose the best taco salad ingredients, what each one does, and substitution options. For measurements, see the recipe card below.
- Ground Beef – I prefer 85/15 for a ground beef taco salad, but you can use any kind you like. If you don’t like beef (or have any on hand), you can also replace this with ground turkey, ground chicken, or even chorizo or shredded chicken. I’ve also made this recipe before using barbacoa for the meat — just omit the taco seasoning.
- Avocado Oil – Just a bit for browning the beef. Olive oil works fine as well.
- Taco Seasoning – I like to make homemade taco seasoning and use 2 tablespoons per pound of meat. (It takes just 5 minutes to make with chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, dried oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, and cayenne pepper.) But, a store bought packet of taco seasoning saves time and is convenient. Check labels to avoid fillers and sugar if you can. I like this store bought seasoning, but it does not contain salt, so you’ll need to add 1 teaspoon of salt if your seasoning is unsalted.
- Romaine Lettuce – Romaine is my go to for taco salad recipes, but you can use any kind of greens you like. Iceberg lettuce is another classic option, though you could do something different with kale, arugula, or spinach if you want to.
- Grape Tomatoes – Served halved in the salad. I’ve also made this salad using cherry tomatoes, or chopped up larger tomatoes, such as Roma tomatoes. Pico de gallo also works well.
- Shredded Cheese – I usually use cheddar cheese, but you can also try a Mexican cheese blend, or pepper jack if you like a kick. You can omit if you want to avoid dairy.
- Avocado – Avocado is a must for a healthy taco salad! You can also swap this with guacamole if you like.
- Onions – I use green onions most often, but any kind you like will work. Diced red onions (the most classic option) or white onions both work great. You could also just throw in some fresh cilantro leaves instead if you’re not a fan of onions.
- Salsa – I like this pre-made one, which has medium heat and clean ingredients! Choosing different kinds is an easy way to get creative without adding complexity. Use mild salsa if you want it mellow, spicy if you want a kick, or go outside the box with more unique flavors like green chile or peach. You can totally make your own, too — try my simple fresh tomato salsa, green salsa verde, or creamy avocado salsa verde.
- Sour Cream – I use salsa and sour cream in lieu of a dressing here, which works out surprisingly well. Why spend time creating a complicated taco salad dressing, when these work just as well? When you mix it all up, it tastes like there’s dressing in there. If you need a dairy free option, swap the sour cream with thick coconut cream, a splash of lime juice, and a pinch of salt.
How To Make Taco Salad
This section shows step-by-step photos together with the instructions, to help you visualize the recipe. For full instructions, including amounts and temperatures, see the recipe card below.
- Brown the beef. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and cook until browned.
- Add the taco seasoning. Stir seasoning into the ground beef until combined. If you like, you can also add 1/4 cup of water when adding the seasoning and let it simmer a bit.
- Assemble the salad. Place the lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, avocado, onions, salsa, and sour cream into a large bowl. When the taco meat is done, add it to the bowl. Toss together and enjoy!
Tips & Variations
- Drain the beef if needed. I don’t usually need to if using 85/15 or 90/10 ground beef, but you’ll probably want to if you use 80/20.
- Customize it to your liking. Ultimately, what goes in a taco salad is very much up to you. Feel free to throw in any other veggies you have on hand, or omit anything you don’t like. That’s one of the great things about simple salads — you don’t have to be that precise!
- Add crunch. Try adding tortilla chips if you want some crispy texture in there. (I make these low carb tortilla chips!)
- Want to make it more hearty? To make the salad more filling, add canned black beans, sweet corn, or black olives.
Storage Instructions
This taco salad recipe makes a generous amount — 6 large servings to feed even a larger family. But if you don’t need that many, don’t worry. It’s also super easy to adjust it to fewer servings if you need to, or store it for later if you plan ahead.
- Store: Keep leftovers in the fridge for up to 2-3 days. If you can, set the extras aside without the sour cream, salsa, and avocado, as these are best added fresh. I also prefer to store the beef separately, so that I can reheat it later.
- Reheat: Warm up the taco meat in a hot skillet or in the microwave before adding to the salad.
- Meal prep: Brown the meat with taco seasoning and chop all your taco salad ingredients (except avocado). I recommend storing them in separate meal prep containers. Right before serving, heat the meat and add to the salad. Top with sour cream, salsa, and freshly cut avocado, and toss together.
More Healthy Mexican Recipes
I love this taco salad for Mexican night at my house! (I’m sure some of you do Taco Tuesday, but my planning is so random that it doesn’t always land on a Tuesday.) We rotate this salad with these other dishes, or sometimes even serve them together:
- Dips – Try my layered taco dip, creamy queso, or fish ceviche. I usually set out a bowl of tortilla chips for people, but my fave is actually hollowed-out fresh mini bell peppers — they are perfect for scooping dips!
- Fajitas – Choose from my shrimp fajitas (the fastest!), chicken fajitas (my personal favorite!), or steak sheet pan fajitas (for a hands-off option).
- Stuffed Veggies – Like my taco stuffed peppers or stuffed poblano peppers.
- Soups – For a soup and salad combo when I have a little more time to prep, I like serving this salad with chili verde (inspired by one I had in Mexico) or Mexican chicken soup.
While it’s fun to experiment, this easy taco salad recipe is definitely the simplest — and it’s still packed with all my fave Mexican flavors — so I make this one most of all. Don’t forget the skinny margaritas!
Tools I Use For This Recipe
- Heavy Bottom Skillet – One of my favorite sets! The larger one is the perfect size to make this recipe for taco salad, and has a heavy bottom for browning the beef evenly.
- Nesting Bowls – This set of bowls includes all different sizes. I used the large from this set to mix the salad in the pictures above.
Taco Salad (Healthy & Easy!)
Make this fresh, easy taco salad recipe in just 20 minutes, using common ingredients, like ground beef, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado and cheese.
Instructions
Tap on the times in the instructions below to start a kitchen timer while you cook.
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Stir taco seasoning into the ground beef until well combined. If you like, you can also add 1/4 cup of water when adding the seasoning and let it simmer a bit.
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Meanwhile, combine all remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Add the ground beef. Toss everything together.
Did You Like It?
Leave a rating to help other readers, or get the recipe sent to your inbox.
Recipe Notes
Serving size: 1/6 of entire recipe
Recipe from The Easy Keto Carboholics’ Cookbook.
Nutrition information is estimated based on 85/15 ground beef and typical tomato salsa.
Nutrition facts are provided as a courtesy. Have questions about calculations or why you got a different result? Please see our nutrition policy.
© Copyright Maya Krampf for Wholesome Yum. Please DO NOT SCREENSHOT OR COPY/PASTE recipes to social media or websites. We’d LOVE for you to share a link with photo instead. 🙂
273 Comments
Rebecca W
0I really love taco salad for a healthy lunch option! I like that this recipe is quick to make and that it hits that Mexican food craving!
Gigi
0Wow wow wow! This recipe was so simple to make and so surprisingly flavorful. I love that it is so versatile. I used pork sausage instead of ground beef. I cooked diced onion and jalapeno with the meat. I made the recipe for the taco seasoning and I will never have to buy it again. The seasoning blend was perfect. And the “dressing” mix of salsa and sour cream, was delicious. My husband loved it and he isn’t crazy about salads. This will be a new family favorite.
Kristin Shepherd
0We loved this! I bought the recommended salt-free taco seasoning in the link. Great flavor and perfect since we’re watching our sodium. I added the recommended items: black beans and corn – which added fiber and flavor and made it very filling so we didn’t get hungry between meals. So quick and easy to make.
DeeDee Jellema
0Love this recipe, by adding different topping such as the tomatoes, avocado or sour cream, it’s a different meal each time.
Melody Bjur
0I loved this taco salad! I used Maya’s seasoning with chicken instead of beef and cooked the onions. I loved mixing the salsa and sour cream (although I use natural yoghurt). So yummy! Thanks Maya!
Susan Economon
0I enjoyed this recipe and really appreciated the many options offered. It’s always surprising to me when I’m satisfied without heavy carbs included in such recipes. More please!
Selena
0Delicious. I had been thinking Mexican when this recipe showed up in my inbox. Perfect. I was already making my own taco seasoning. Loved the variation of smoked paprika (which I also added to my guacamole), and the cayenne pepper kick. It was delicious and helped me stay on track with my eating plan.
Patricia Carlton
0This Taco salad was amazing… Will definitely be making this again.
Sherri Vanderberg
0This recipe was extremely easy to prepare, and very delicious. We had it for dinner, and I made enough so that I could have it for lunch for the week. And it was even better throughout the week as the flavours absorbed together. My husband even liked it and he’s not on keto. Absolutely will make this a staple in my keto journey.
Barbara Short
0I substituted shredded beef and used a taco shell and the recipe was a huge hit with the family. Delicious was and word used by all.
Farrah Kalatzakis
0Perfect weeknight meal for my keto diet, and kids gobble it up too! We used ground turkey instead, and substituted Mexican cheese. It was really tasty! Next time I want to add some corn (even though it’s not a, low carb veg) just to mix it up!
C
0A tasty way to get more salad ingredients into your diet. I make this almost weekly, my family loves it, we never get tired of it! I have even made it for extended family and it was such a hit. Highly recommend this one.
Lea
0This was delicious. I left out the avocado, nobody likes them in my house.
Jennifer Tompkins
0Mexican Food is my favorite! Love this Taco Salad!
ginger lafreniere
0Missed having traditional tacos till I saw this recipe. Now I enjoy tacos whenever I get a craving.
Kim
0Love this salad! I added the black olives, which of course adds to the deliciousness!
Mary Sauers
0We loved this Taco Salad Recipe–super fast and easy!
Nancy
0So simple and tasty. Good way to get finicky eaters fed.
Susan
0Thank you Maya for this simple, fast, tasty recipe!
I switched out the cheeses for non-dairy ones, used salsa verde, and added black olives (love them). I was getting bored with the same salads I bring to work, so I kept a bit of the lettuce and mixture separate and I’m looking forward to having it again at work tomorrow for lunch!
Stacy
0So simple! Why did I forget about taco salad, it hits all the boxes for us and I have ability to use turkey instead of swap out different greens– definitely going in my “weeknight” recipe box! Thank you!
Lisa Spock
0Oh my gosh! My family loved this taco salad! It was so easy and quick to make. So much easier than tacos and my new perfect favorite. Thank you so much!!
Madaliene Booth
0I LOVE Taco Salad. This one is really good. I have to say I miss the sweetness of the Catalina-type dressing, but this was delicious…in a different way. Need to find a low-carb substitute for the dressing. Any suggestions?
Wholesome Yum D
0Hi Madaliene, Here is my homemade ranch dressing recipe.
Linda
0Excellent. Whole family of 6 loved it including a 12 y/o! Left out cherry tomato’s, used fresh pico salsa, Mexi crema and seeded and diced fresh jalapeños. Can’t wait to try your cauliflower recipe. Thanks for sharing.
If you get this twice I apologize.
debralloyd62
0I love this recipe. Hubbie and I recently went Keto and I’ve been on the hunt for yummy recipes. This one was a big hit. My husband said you can make that again…so delicious. Easy to make and leftovers last a few days. Highly recommend. Has become a weekly favorite.
Gail Ouellette
0This recipe is so wonderful. I love to fry up the beef in bulk, season it and freeze it in individual portions so I just have to take out, thaw, heat and add my lettuce, tomato, green onions, avocado, cheese, salsa and sour cream. It is an easy quick delicious go to meal.
Kimberly Storck
0Loved it! So quick and easy, and fairly low carb. On non-low carb days, I might add chopped cooked potato and French or Western dressing
Tracey
0I made this for dinner tonight. I added green olives, salsa verde and pickled jalapenos. We also used zero carb torillas in the air fryer to make crispy tortilla strips for the salad.
Marlene Autio
0Fantastically simple.
Tammy
0Yummy 😋
M
0Can’t wait to try it!
Carol
0This recipe came on the right day because I have been craving a taco salad, but I wanted a healthier version. The homemade taco seasoning is so good, the salad came together very quickly and my husband and I both loved the flavor. I will definitely make this again.
Melissa
0I love making taco salad when eating clean, and this one was great. All the toppings let everyone choose what they wanted, and I made a couple shells for the kids. We eat this almost weekly because who doesn’t love Taco Tuesday!
Georgia
0I made this taco salad yesterday and my picky eaters actually liked it a lot. My husband is a big fan of all things Mexican food related and said that he would like to have this at least once a week. So this is absolutely going to be put on repeat at our house. Thanks for this awesome delicious recipe.
Caroline
0This taco salad was absolutely amazing!!! I didn’t know salad could taste so good!!
James Sorrels
0I make one similar to this one I use 1/2 lb hamburger meat, 1/2 Ground Turkey, letttuce, green onions, tomato, roast garlic salsa, taco seasoning (store bought) plenty of shredded cheese and jalapenos and Yellow Corn Tortilla Strips. This is a good fast meal that can also be done as nachos leave out lettuce and tomato.
Rebekah Atwood
0Can’t wait to make this for dinner! Very keto friendly.
John Ingle
0Wow great recipe!! And so filling. I took the liberty of adding some chopped chilies while cooking the ground beef. I also had several friends over to hang out and eat dinner. None of them are known for healthy eating habits but some won’t eat red meats so I made the recipe with cubed chicken breast and it was a hit. They even begged me for the leftovers so they could have them for lunch tomorrow. Thanks for the help!!
Terri
0Wonderful recipe. The only thing is I didn’t add the onions, as I have a slight allergy to them. The sour cream made a great dressing. Hubby added nacho chips and salsa to his, for a dressing.
Susan Muller
0This is one of our favorites! We have it almost every week! We also slice black olives on top💕💕
Sandra Chacon
0This salad was amazing, I used Ground Turkey & added the suggested corn & black beans which made it very filling. I also baked a flour tortilla as well to make an edible salad bowl & devoured the whole thing & my teenager daughter did the same. Definitely going to be on the rotation, thank you!!
Rebecca Jones
0I cannot wait to try this recipe. I think I would add ground turkey and avocados. I like that it is easy and will not take time to make.
Lynette
0Love this easy recipe! It is quick and delicious. Great flavor. Thank you for sharing with us.
Kathy
0My husband and I tried the Taco Salad. Not hard at all to make. Plus has most of the ingredients on hand. I love the avocado so much in it. Plus the salsa for sure. Can’t wait for summer to make homemade salsa for it!
Julie
0I have this at least once a week. It’s really wonderful and so easy. My husband adds tortilla chips to his!
Brenda
0I used ground beef and homemade taco seasoning. This was fantastic. I am ketovore for 7 years now. My son is eating partially keto. He loved this and has now lost 56lbs. I am down 120lbs with 20 more to go. Your recipies are fantastic and we have made many.
Stephani Epps
0I knew I would love this but was pleasantly surprised when my husband said make this anytime.
Courtney
0We love this taco salad! I prep everything but make individual salads so that we can have planned leftovers and heat the meat up on its own. We also mix the taco seasoning into 1/4 water and let the beef simmer in it to get a bit more flavor without over cooking the beef. Depending on what we have on hand, sometimes I’ll add some black olives or a squirt of lime to brighten it up. So easy!
Jo Lukins
0Making this tonight!
In our household time is of the essence, so I need tasty, healthy AND quick! Taco’s are a big favourite in our house, so this creative variation will be well received.
Cathie Self
0I have made this recipe every week or two for a long time! It is fast and so yummy! Perfect for those evenings with little time.
angie guinn
0This was so easy to make and so delicious. I have left overs for a couple of meals this weekend. This is the only way to make taco salad and it’s HEALTHY!
Darlene Conklin
0Taco Salad was absolutely delicious as are all of her recipes!! Thank you for creating these Keto and Gluten Free recipes!!
Bonnie
0Love love love this recipe! I used ground turkey in mine. Also, I made the taco seasoning recipe and tripled it. Maya, every spice goes so perfectly together that I put it on almost everything (baked potato, cauliflower, any veggies, or a dip with cream cheese). My husband and I devoured this salad. Thank you for sharing!