Cold Taco Salad

I went to a cookout this weekend and I was served Dawn’s , Mary's Fruit Salad and Val's Taco Salad. Although Dawn ribbed me about changing her Caesar Salad recipe and Mary wanted to know when I would publish her Fruit Salad and gave me permission to change anything I wanted, today I am giving you my version of Val’s Taco Salad. I have loved this salad for many years the way Val makes it but since I love Mexican food, I could not resist making some additions – but no deletions. I served this salad to Val and some guests at my house last week so I would have a picture for this column. Can you see what is missing?

This salad is made with ground hamburg that you brown and then mix with packaged taco seasonings; you can do that in advance.  Then add bottled dressing, crushed up Doritos Tortilla Nacho Chips in the red bag, cheese, lettuce and some vegetables and it is delicious. Unfortunately, this salad is not good as leftovers; even though it makes a lot, there are never any leftovers. So this is not really a “Cooking Around the Carpool” recipe, but it will be a hit at your next cookout.

Ingredients

1 lb. lean ground hamburg

1 envelope of taco seasonings – try to get the low sodium since the chips are very salty

2 hearts of romaine or 2 bags of romaine lettuce

1 - 11oz can of corn - drained

1 - 15oz can of black beans – rinsed and drained

1 – 2.25oz can of sliced, black olives

2 tomatoes, chopped

2  cups of shredded cheese. Last weekend Val used pepper jack and it gave the salad a nice bite, but you can use cheddar or jack

1 – 16 oz bottle of 1000 island dressing – any brand

1 – 12oz bag of Doritos Tortilla Chips Nacho Cheese in the red bag.

Brown the hamburg in a skillet over medium heat, then drain well. Return hamburg to skillet and add the envelop of taco seasonings and ¼ cup of water. Mix well and heat through. Hamburg mixture can be prepared the day before or just earlier in the day. You will add this to your salad either at room temperature or right from the refrigerator.

In a very large bowl, combine hamburg mixture, all the vegetables, and the cheese. Add the crushed Doritos and dressing right before serving. Use anywhere from ¾ of the bottle of dressing to the whole bottle.

What is missing from the Cold Taco Salad in the picture? Cheese!!  How did I forget that? It was still good; we were all eating it before one of my guests noticed it did not have cheese in it. We all had a good laugh, and were reminded of the time Rich forgot the beans in the chili (sorry Rich, you will never live that down!) but I recommend you don’t forget the cheese!