This healthy taco salad is made with turkey taco meat instead of beef, packed with veggies and topped with a creamy southwest dressing.
Do you participate in Taco Tuesday regularly?
One way to streamline meal planning is to have theme nights for each day of the week, like Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday and/or Pizza Friday. Obviously these are just some ideas!
If you do start embracing a Taco Tuesday theme night, you’ll know you’re having tacos in some form every Tuesday and meal planning gets a whole lot easier!
ground turkey – a leaner protein option than beef!
vegetables – mini bell peppers, romaine lettuce, grape or cherry tomatoes, frozen sweet corn, jalapeño pepper and avocado.
shredded Mexican cheese – I like adding a little cheese, but you can omit if you’re dairy-free.
fresh salsa – choose your preferred spice level!
taco seasoning – use store-bought or make your own taco seasoning!
olive oil
tortilla chips
chopped cilantro and hot sauce – optional, but recommended
Creamy Southwest Dressing
If you’ve been following me for a bit, you know I lovesalads. One key factor for creating a delicious salad is the salad dressing! A good dressing ties the whole salad together and really takes it to the next level. For this healthy taco salad, I paired it with a creamy southwest dressing that is SO good! Here’s what you need:
plain Greek yogurt – you can use traditional Greek yogurt or dairy-free if needed.
lime juice
spices – cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
fresh salsa
fresh cilantro
How to Make Healthy Taco Salad
This taco salad is packed with flavor from the turkey taco meat, which includes roasted peppers, taco seasoning and salsa. The roasted peppers seriously take it to the next level and the prep work to make them is pretty minimal!
Roast peppers: Preheat oven to 400°F. Place peppers on a baking sheet, spray with olive or avocado oil cooking spray, sprinkle on a little salt and pepper and place in the oven to roast for 20-30 minutes, or until peppers are soft. Let peppers cool, remove stems and any large seeds and then dice into small pieces. The diced up peppers should measure out to be about 1/3 cup.
Make dressing: Add all ingredients for the dressing into a blender and blend until fully combined and smooth. You can also use an immersion blender for this.
Cook turkey: Add oil to a skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add turkey. Break the meat into small pieces using a spatula or meat chopper as it cooks. Cook for about 6-8 minutes or until the turkey is no longer pink. Add taco seasoning, salsa and roasted peppers to the pan and toss to combine. Set aside.
Prep salads: While the turkey it cooking start to prep your salad ingredients. To build salads, start with a base of romaine lettuce in each bowl and add the toppings — turkey taco meat, tomatoes, corn, cheese, jalapeño, avocado and chips. Drizzle dressing over each salad and serve with a sprinkle on chopped cilantro. Add some fresh salsa and a few drops of hot sauce if using. Another option is to place all the salad ingredients into a large salad bowl and toss with dressing, then portion into three bowls.
Meal Prepping Taco Salad
This recipe is so great for meal prep! I recommend prepping the turkey and dressing ahead of time and then when you’re ready to enjoy, quickly chop the fresh salad ingredients, assemble the salads and enjoy!
This healthy taco salad is made with ground turkey taco meat instead of beef and is packed with veggies. It comes together quickly making it perfect for a weeknight meal.
1large head romaine lettuce, washed, rinsed, dried and chopped
1/2cupgrape or cherry tomatoes, chopped
1/2cupthawed frozen sweet corn
1/4cupshredded Mexican cheese + more to taste
1/2jalapeño pepper, de-seeded and chopped (optional)
1avocado, chopped into chunks
1/4cuptortilla chips, broken into pieces
chopped cilantro, for garnish
hot sauce, to taste (optional)
fresh salsa, to taste
Creamy Southwest Dressing
4ouncesplain Greek yogurt
1teaspoonslime juice
1/8teaspooncumin
1/4teaspoonchili powder
1/4teaspoongarlic powder
1/4teaspoonsalt
1/4teaspoonpepper
1/4cupfresh salsa
2Tablespoonsfresh cilantro
Instructions
Roast peppers: Preheat oven to 400°F. Place peppers on a baking sheet, spray with olive or avocado oil cooking spray, sprinkle on a little salt and pepper and place in the oven to roast for 20-30 minutes, or until peppers are soft. Let peppers cool, remove stems and any large seeds and then dice into small pieces. The diced up peppers should measure out to be about 1/3 cup.
Make dressing: Add all ingredients for the dressing into a blender and blend until fully combined and smooth. You can also use an immersion blender for this.
Cook turkey: Add oil to a skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add turkey. Break meat into small pieces using a spatula or meat chopper as it cooks. Cook for about 6-8 minutes or until the turkey is no longer pink. Add taco seasoning, salsa and roasted peppers to the pan and toss to combine. Set aside.
Prep salads: While the turkey it cooking start to prep your salad ingredients. To build salads, start with a base of romaine lettuce in each bowl and add the toppings — turkey taco meat, tomatoes, corn, cheese, jalapeño, avocado and chips.
Serve: Drizzle a little dressing over each salad and serve with chopped cilantro and extra dressing. Add some fresh salsa and a few drops of hot sauce if using. Another option is to place all the salad ingredients into a large salad bowl and toss with dressing, then portion into two-four bowls for serving.
This salad was delicious and filling. I especially loved the dressing and the the spices on the turkey. I have mad ethos twice in one week because it was so good. I highly recommend it! 🙂
Yaah, Salad is useful for a diet plan. Salad is a good diet plan for health. You regularly use salad your look very good and you get an also healthy life. I appreciate you for good this good topic share with us.
Leave a Comment
That Southwest dressing was AMAZING!!!!
Ah yay! I am so happy you enjoyed this recipe & dressing, Madi. Thank you for your review + star rating, I really appreciate you being here!
The taco seasoning is delicious and I have made extra to keep on hand. The southwest dressing was so yummy! Excellent recipe!
Woo! I’m glad you’re loving this recipe, Robyn. Thank you for sharing your review, I really appreciate it.
Had a great time following this recipe!
Yay! I’m glad this recipe worked out for you, Sarah! Thanks for coming back to leave a review, I appreciate it.
This salad was delicious and filling. I especially loved the dressing and the the spices on the turkey. I have mad ethos twice in one week because it was so good. I highly recommend it! 🙂
Yaah, Salad is useful for a diet plan. Salad is a good diet plan for health. You regularly use salad your look very good and you get an also healthy life. I appreciate you for good this good topic share with us.
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