This homemade taco salad will revolutionize the way you see salads! It’s bursting with flavor, easy to customize, and super simple to prepare. From the homemade taco seasoning to the homemade dressing, everything about this taco salad is bursting with flavor, texture, and deliciousness. You can make it for a nourishing homestead dinner or it can easily be prepped ahead of time and packed for busy work days or adventures. I love that this meal can incorporate homegrown produce from the homestead garden. It can be made completely from scratch without having to buy taco seasoning or dressing!

a bowl of taco salad topped with cheese pretzel nuggets and homemade Catalina dressing

Modern Pioneer Recipe

This taco salad is the perfect example of a modern pioneer recipe! The only thing that doesn’t make it a traditional pioneer recipe is the fact that the early pioneers didn’t have too many salads, at least that I have found records of! For one, fresh produce would have been hard to transport over the trail. Although, once settled, the pioneers did have to grow all of their own vegetables. Also, the early pioneers probably did not make taco seasoning or dressings to add to their meals. That’s more of a modern pioneer thing to do.

With that being said though, all of those extras can be made from scratch (instead of store bought). You can even grow a lot of your own ingredients to make the salad! Or, if you can’t grow fresh salad fixings all year round, then you can at least buy organic, locally grown produce to make your salads with.

Not only is this salad composed of ‘from-scratch’ ingredients, but the ingredients are also wholesome and nutritious for you! What more could you expect from a salad… obviously the name just rings with healthy vibes, but that’s not always the case for all salads.

For this taco salad though, it rings true! Healthy ingredients and from scratch toppings make this salad allergy-friendly and compliant with most restricted diets! This homemade taco salad is…

grain-free
nut free
gluten-free
corn free
egg free
dairy-free
soy free

I actually do enjoy a good salad, and taco salads are one of my favorites! However, another favorite salad of mine is grilled chicken salad, which is super simple to make and bursting with flavor!

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a bowl of taco salad made with ground venison taco

How to Make a Homemade Salad

Salads have always seemed like a pretty straightforward recipe to me. And making a homemade salad is like second-nature. However, some salads (like taco salad) require a few additional ingredients that you may be tempted to just buy. BUT, making your own taco seasoning and salad dressing for taco salad it actually quite easy!

Taco Seasoning– My family has special preferences on taco seasonings. My mom likes taco seasonings that are simple, not too spicy, and don’t contain extra ingredients like sugar or rice flour. My dad on the other hand, likes the spiciest taco seasoning you can find. So, I had to go somewhere in between with my homemade taco seasoning.

Thankfully, the homemade taco seasoning I include in this recipe turned out perfectly! The perfect amount of flavor to create a happy-medium and it created the perfect consistency taco meat that everyone enjoys. The meat stays moist and is slightly bound together thanks to the tapioca flour I included in the spice blend. It was perfect!

Salad Dressing– As for the Catalina dressing, Anna and I have never had ‘real’ Catalina dressing. It’s not a staple on our salads, however, our dad always has Catalina dressing on his taco salad, so we wanted to give it a try. I figured, how hard can it be to make a salad dressing!?

In fact, it wasn’t that hard at all. My from-scratch Catalina dressing recipe uses simple, wholesome ingredients that I always have on hand in my pantry or fridge. It had the perfect amount of sweetness to it and wasn’t an overpowering flavor on the salad. I think Anna and I may be converted over to Catalina-on-taco-salad fans!

To get the Catalina dressing recipe, you can find it in the Homemade Condiment Recipes Mini ebook in the Trading Post!

two bowls of romaine lettuce, carrots, and pasta

How to Make a Taco (Salad) Bar

I think one reason why taco salad is such a huge hit in my family is because each family member can customize their salad to their preferences. Taco salad nights often turn into taco salad bar nights, with all the ingredients spread out over the table. It’s great though, because everyone gets to fix a dinner salad that is both healthy and one that they will enjoy eating!

Everyone’s ‘classic’ taco salad is different. In my house, we keep it pretty simple and usually just use whatever salad ingredients we have on hand.

Here are some of my family’s favorite taco salad fixings, keep in mind we like to mix and match, so our salads don’t usually contain all these items!

organic, romaine lettuce OR
baby green spring salad mix
baby spinach
organic carrots
grated raw cheddar cheese (or dairy-free cheese shreds)
organic bread and butter pickles (home-canned is best!)
homemade salsa
plantain chips
gluten-free pretzel nuggets
Banza chickpea pasta
homemade Catalina dressing OR
Bragg’s vinaigrette dressing

For the meat, our classic meat choice is ground venison, since we always have a stash of that in our freezer! However, ground turkey or ground beef would work instead.

If leafy green salads aren’t your style, then you may want to check out these healthy quinoa bowls, such as this Gluten-free Walleye Quinoa Bowl or this Spiced Venison Quinoa Bowl. Who said you can’t make a quinoa salad!?

Or maybe you’re all for taco Tuesday, just not the salad part… then these grain-free tacos are just what you’re looking for!

two bowls of homemade taco salad topped with chips and salad dressing

How to Make Taco Salad Ahead of Time

Another great thing about this homemade taco salad is that it is super easy to make up ahead of time and keep it in the fridge until you are ready to eat it. This is a super easy meal to make for busy days, to take on day trips, or make as a camping meal.

There are several ways you can turn taco salad into a make-ahead-of-time meal. Here are a few things that I like to do to make prepping taco salad quick and easy:

cook and prep the taco meat, let it cool, then freeze it for later
cook the taco meat, divide it into glass canning jars, add salad fixings and store in the fridge for a quick, dump-on-your-plate meal
have all your lettuce washed up ahead of time and store the washed leaves in an airtight container with some paper towel to absorb the moisture
cut up any veggies or toppings ahead of time
have several meals worth of homemade taco seasoning all made up
cook up the pasta ahead of time and mix it in with the cooked taco meat

Taco salad is always a go-to meal when I’m menu planning for a camping trip or am trying to think of an easy meal to pack on a day trip.

Another quick and easy travel meal to prep ahead of time is this grain-free, gluten-free venison pasta salad!

Taco Salad Recipe Tips

Homemade taco salad is a super easy meal to make, and honestly, I don’t know how you could go wrong. Salads are kind of hard to give recipe tips on, but I will give you a few pointers for when you make the homemade taco seasoning or Catalina dressing:

Batch Size– The taco seasoning recipe makes enough for one batch of mildly spicy taco meat (one pound of meat).
More Spice– If you want more spice in your taco meat, increase the cayenne pepper and chili powder in the seasoning blend.
Meat Moisture– Venison is a very dry meat, so may need to cut back on the amount of water if you are using a different kind of ground meat.
Shake it Up– Make sure you shake the Catalina dressing super well before adding it to your salad to ensure all the ingredients are sufficiently blended together. Also, as the Catalina dressing sets in the fridge, it will firm up a bit, but a good shake prior to using will get it back to a pourable state.
Warm it Up– If the Catalina dressings gets too firm, you can leave it out at room temperature while you prep the other salad fixings or you can run the jar under warm water to make the dressings easier to shake and pour.

Remember, you can find my homemade Catalina dressing recipe in the condiment ebook in the Trading Post!

homemade taco salad topped with plantain chips and ranch dressing

Now I can’t wait to share this amazing homemade taco salad recipe with you! Made with simple, wholesome ingredients and flavored with a homemade seasoning blend and homemade dressing, this modern pioneer salad can easily become anyone’s favorite way to have salad!

Homemade Taco Salad & Taco Seasoning

Recipe by The Pioneer Chicks

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 10

Total Time 30

Servings 4 salads

Author Alexa Lehr

Ingredients

Taco Seasoning Blend

1 T. organic chili powder
1 tsp. organic paprika
1 tsp. organic onion powder
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. organic garlic powder
1 tsp. organic cumin
1 tsp. Bob's Red Mill tapioca flour
1/8 tsp. coconut sugar
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

Taco Salad

1 lb. ground venison
1/4 cup water
8-12 large leaves of romaine lettuce, washed & shredded
1 large organic carrot, washed and sliced
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
12 bread and butter pickle slices
2/3 cup Banza chickpea pasta, uncooked
plantain chips
homemade Catalina dressing

Instructions

Mix together all of the taco seasoning ingredients in a small glass jar.
Heat a 10" cast iron skillet over low heat with 1 tsp. of bacon fat in it. When you can see some steam rising off the pan, add the ground meat.
Use a spatula to break up the ground meat and cook it completely (no pink showing). It usually takes about 5-7 minutes.
Add the taco seasoning blend and 1/4 cup of water. Use the spatula to incorporate everything. Let the meat simmer for 3-4 minutes or until most of the water has been absorbed.
Remove the seasoned meat from the cast iron skillet and set it aside.
Fill a small saucepan with enough water to cover the Banza pasta, but don't add the pasta yet! Bring the water to boil over high heat.
Once the water is boiling, turn down the heat and add the Banza pasta. Cook for 9-11 minutes at a boil. Test with a fork to see if the pasta is tender. Strain the water from the pasta and rinse it under cold water to keep the pasta from sticking together.
Gather the washed lettuce, sliced carrots, shredded cheese, and pickle slices and divide them up between 4 salad bowls. Serve with the cooked taco meat, pasta, plantain chips, Catalina dressing, and any other taco salad toppings of your choice!

Where to Find the Ingredients

two bowls of salad topped with ground venison taco meat

This taco salad recipe is truly the best homemade taco salad I have ever had! Who can complain about having a salad when it is bursting with flavor and you can add some of your favorite healthy toppings like home-canned bread & butter pickles and newly adored homemade Catalina dressing!? I had so much fun coming up with homemade recipes for both taco seasoning blend and the dressing for this taco salad. You will love being able to make your own taco seasoning and salad dressing right in the homestead kitchen instead of having to buy them at the store!

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