Easy Low Carb Taco Salad

Wouldn't it have been so great if I had thought of this before Cinco De Mayo?  Like, if I could use my brain to make things on this blog relevant, current, and topical?  

But, no, this came to me a week after the fact.  Sorry about that.  We are eating slightly fewer carbs recently, not really for any particular purpose but more so because it's the time of the year where produce is getting GREAT so we are eating a lot more fruits and veggies in general.  I love meat, and we can't have 4 veggies, meat, and a carb at every meal just due to the dishes never getting done, so carbs have been falling by the wayside on some meals.  I know that other people prefer to eat low carb lots of the time, so this is a perfect meal for anyone trying to do that OR just wanting to enjoy spring lettuces to their fullest.  

The beef is similar to my no-packet beef tacos without the addition of extra liquid before the beef goes on the salad.  The dressing is creamy the ingredients are crunchy, there is cheese....it's basically perfect.  

For the beef, I did the leanest my grocery store had to offer, a pound.  Then it's chili powder, cumin, hot paprika (or cayenne, just something spicy), seasoned salt, garlic powder, and onion powder.  

It's so simple, I'm the biggest fan of ground beef.  Drizzle some olive oil in a big skillet and add the beef with all the spices.  Heat is on medium-high.  

Then, as the pan heats up and the beef starts to sizzle, just break up the beef and let it cook with the spices for 10 minutes or so.  You can use any kind of ground beef you want, just drain off the fat if you use a higher fat blend.  I usually break up the beef for about a minute, let it sit in the skillet to brown, stir, break up some more, repeat - until all the beef is toasty and brown and cooked through.  Taste it, and ad more seasoned salt if you'd like.  It should have FLAVOR.  

Now, for the dressing it's just lime juice, salsa, and sour cream.  Easy!

All the ingredients in a bowl.  

Mix, taste, pinch of salt if needed.  What kind of salsa you use depends on how spicy this will be, so use anything you like!  If you prefer a tangier dressing, you can use the whole lime too.  

Last, prep the salad veggies!  I have lettuce from my grandparents' house, chopped tomato, sliced spring onion (they're purple!  how lovely!), sliced radishes, grated raw gouda, cilantro leaves, and lime wedges.  Make this salad with anything you like, though, I think that sliced jalapeno would be great (I used the pickled kind, but fresh is so good!), avocado or guacamole, cucumber, spinach leaves....anything could add even more fun to this salad.  

Then we just build.  I love salads on big plates because you can see all the ingredients.  Just layer the veggies with the cheese.  

Then spoon some ground beef right over everything.  

Drizzle the salad with the dressing and add some lime and pickled jalapenos if you're into that sort of thing.  Easy, healthy, delicious, done.  

The dressing is great for me, I like sour cream, salsa, and lime wedges with nachos (or any Mexican meal, really), so why not add them to a dressing for a salad?  Done and done.  See also:  radishes + cilantro + raw onion are traditional toppings for Mexican street tacos.  LOVE this combo of ingredients.  

Make this asap, especially if you're an "I hate myself I ate funnel cake all weekend and now need salad for Monday" kind of person.  This will soften the blow, and one should never feel hate relating to funnel cake.  Enjoy!