This taco salad is one of my favorite salads to eat as well as to serve.  I've been making this salad for years since it's so easy to fix and has mass appeal.  When I was part of a tennis league, once a season, my partner and I were responsible for lunch and this taco salad was always a hit.   Not only is it easy to fix ahead of time, it is healthy and delicious. I now serve it when I host meetings and serve some version of this for retreats since there's something there for everyone to eat.  The key to this delicious taco salad is the tasty meat which gives it a punch and the delicious cilantro dressing that is healthier than the El Torito cilantro dressing. I recently starting making the taco meat with my Sammy Wong's all-purpose seasoning and it has been a game changer in terms of taste and haste! Sammy Wong's Kitchen's ORGANIC all-purpose seasoning can now be purchased online.

Tips for making this taco salad with cilantro pepita dressing

Meat

You can use any type of meat to give the salad tasty morsels.  You can even marinate large pieces of meat and after it's cooked, dice it up into small pieces.  I prefer to use ground meat since it saves time.  There is a tip that I want to share about cooking ground meat properly.  The amount of stirring and agitation effects the size of the meat pieces.  The less stirring results in larger ground pieces.  I prefer to have medium pieces so that each mouthful will have some tasty, meaty bits.  However, this is personal preference.  Use lean ground meat.  If that is unavailable, cook the meat first and pour out the rendered fat before adding the Sammy Wong's all purpose seasoning.  Although the fat is the tasty part, be mindful of how much fat you want on your salad and want to ingest!  Afterall, you are trying to eat a healthy salad!

Greens and fixins

Any type of salad greens will work:  a salad mix, plain arugula or plain romaine. Consider this salad a deconstructed taco so anything that would normally be found in a taco can be added as this salad's fixin.  Some options are:

Freshly made chunky salsa:  large pieces of tomato, chopped onion and jalapeno.  I like slicing cherry tomatoes.
Sliced peppers for color.
Grated cheese.
Sour cream of Greek yoghurt.  I prefer Greek yoghurt since that's the ingredient in the dressing.
Canned beans.  
Corn kernels.
Diced jalapeno for those who like spicy!

Tortilla chips

This salad is not a taco salad without the corn tortilla chips.  I just love the crunch when the chips are crumbled into the salad. I prefer the thin tortilla chips as it's easier to crumble, but any favorite tortilla chips will work.

Dressing

The healthy cilantro pepita dressing is a MUST with this taco salad.  It's quick, easy, delicious, healthy and the flavors blend well together.

If you've made this taco salad with the cilantro pepita dressing, let me know what you think in the comment section.