The Best Tasty Taco Salad With Homemade Dressing
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This Taco Salad with Homemade Dressing is perfect for your next pitch-in or as a fun weeknight dinner for the family. The homemade dressing uses a can of tomato soup so it’s easy to put together and everyone will love the flavor.
Taco Salad with Homemade Dressing Ingredient List
Barbara first had a version of this taco salad at her godson’s baptism. It was love at first bite so she, of course, asked for the recipe. Aren’t these the best kind of recipes? The ones that are passed from a friend of a friend to us?
The secret ingredient in this homemade dressing is a can of tomato soup. Yes, I said TOMATO SOUP!
- Lean Ground Beef
- Red Kidney Beans
- Iceberg Lettuce or Romaine Lettuce
- Diced tomatoes (cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, etc.)
- Yellow onion, white onion or red onion
- Shredded cheddar cheese
- Nacho Cheese Doritos
- Canned tomato soup
- Sugar
- Vegetable oil
- Apple cider vinegar
- Salt
- Garlic powder
- Dry mustard powder
Optional Ingredients
- Sliced Avocado
- Salsa
- Corn
- Black Olives
- Green onions
- Fresh cilantro
- Sour cream
- Diced bell peppers
Dorito Taco Salad
If you are serving a big crowd and anticipate eating this Taco Salad with Homemade Dressing at one sitting, then go ahead and mix all the ingredients.
If not, Barbara recommends making individual, customized salads for each member of the family. That way instead of being stuck with soggy leftovers, you can have crisp salads another day that taste just as great as the original.
The dressing will stay in the fridge for a couple weeks, just give it a good shake to re emulsify the oil. The dressing recipe makes 2 pints, so it is easily halved (as is the salad recipe) if you aren’t feeding a crowd and don’t want leftovers.
You can easily prep the salad, meat mixture and dressing the night before serving and just throw them all together at the last minute (just be sure to shake the dressing before adding).
How to Make Taco Salad with Homemade Dressing
Step by Step Instructions
- Brown the ground beef in a large skillet and drain.
- Add drained beans and ground beef back to skillet and simmer for 10 minutes.
- For taco salad dressing recipe, add all of the ingredients into the blender and blend until smooth.
- Toss ground beef/beans, lettuce, onion, tomatoes, cheese and Doritos together and top with dressing. Serve immediately.
For the full instructions for Doritos Taco Salad, scroll to the bottom of this post.
Recipe FAQs
- Use your favorite taco salad ingredients.
- Substitute black beans or pinto beans for kidney beans.
- Do not toss this until right before serving. You do not want a soggy salad.
- This Catalina dressing will stay good in the refrigerator for a couple weeks. Just give it a good stir or shake before using. Feel free to make it ahead of time.
- Any flavor of Doritos can be used.
What dressing for taco salad?
My three favorite dressings to top a taco salad is Ranch dressing, Catalina dressing and Avocado dressing.
More Taco-Inspired Recipes
Taco Salad with Homemade Dressing
Ingredients
Salad
- 1 head of lettuce torn into bite sized pieces
- 1 yellow onion chopped
- 1 package cherry tomatoes halved
- 16 oz. package shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 can dark red kidney beans
- 1/2 bag of your favorite Doritos Taco or Sweet Chili are especially good
Dressing
- 1 can Campbell’s Tomato Soup
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 t. salt
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Brown the ground beef in a skillet, crumbling as you go; drain fat.
- Add the ground beef back to skillet with the drained beans. Simmer on low for 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat.
- For dressing, add all ingredients to a blender. Blend until smooth.
- When ready to serve, toss lettuce, onion, tomatoes, cheese, Doritos, ground beef mixture and dressing; serve immediately,
Notes
- Use your favorite taco salad ingredients.
- Substitute black beans or pinto beans for kidney beans.
- Do not toss this until right before serving. You do not want a soggy salad.
- This Catalina taco salad dressing will stay good in the refrigerator for a couple weeks. Just give it a good stir or shake before using. Feel free to make it ahead of time.Â
- Any flavor of Doritos can be used.Â
- Try our other favorite Taco Salad recipe.Â
- The nutritional information is auto-calculated and can vary depending on the products used.
Nutrition
would like recipe for crab and shrimp dip appetizer
Pat – Sorry for the slow response. Here’s the recipe. http://www.theseoldcookbooks.com/cold-crab-party-dip/
How can you make this for two hearty servings
You can halve the recipe for both the salad and dressing and make two good size salads. Or make a whole batch of the dressing and just store in the refrigerator. It should keep for a couple of weeks. Just shake well before using.