A Taco Salad Bar is a modern nod to the retro recipe that lets your dinner guests customize their own delicious taco salad - conveniently served on an aesthetically pleasing charcuterie board.
Taco Salad (specifically Doritos Taco Salad) is fondly remembered as the potluck salad of my youth. This retro salad is typically made with taco-seasoned ground beef, lettuce, Nacho Cheese Doritos, and shredded cheddar cheese (amongst other tasty ingredients). You’d crush up the Nacho Cheese Doritos, combine everything in a bowl, then tie it all together with Catalina or French dressing. Or salsa :).
The only drawback to Taco Salad was that leftovers didn’t fare well, the chips and lettuce quickly becoming soggy. Instead, by serving a make-your-own Taco Salad Bar on a charcuterie board, you can avoid the sogginess issue altogether.
Because this is a choose-your-own-adventure meal, you and your guests can customize the taco salad to suit your tastes. No Picky Polly cherry-picking out ingredients she doesn’t like and no Fad-Diet Fred declining to partake because you couldn’t remember they weren’t eating beans this week. And most importantly, this make-your-own Taco Salad Bar idea is impressive AF. Just look at it.
Jump to:
How to Make a Taco Salad Bar - Ingredients
The beauty of the Taco Salad Bar is that you have culinary freedom to include whatever ingredients you like - as long as they are complementary to taco salads. At a minimum, you will need the following ingredients:
- Nacho Cheese Doritos
- Taco-seasoned ground beef
- Lettuce
- Shredded cheese
- Catalina or French dressing* (you could also use salsa instead)
After you have the core ingredients, you can include whatever you’d like! I recommend considering the following:
- Pinto or black beans
- Cherry tomatoes
- Green bell pepper
- Yellow onion
- Black olives
- Pickled jalapenos
- Crema (as an optional sauce)
How to Make a Taco Salad Bar - The Setup
The key to putting together this beautiful Taco Salad board is all in the prep work. Since the only thing you need to cook is the ground beef, most of your time should be spent preparing the other ingredients. Put some effort into making nice, even dices of onion and pepper. Carefully mound ingredients into small serving bowls. Put dressings and sauces into pourable containers. Make that Taco Salad Bar really pop!
I chose to anchor the majority of toppings and sauces in opposing diagonal corners of the board for practical and aesthetic reasons. It looks pretty and if you have two people serving themselves at the same time, they can each focus on one side of the board without crossing streams (so to speak).
Then I filled in the remaining space with pre-cut and washed Romaine lettuce, which should make up at least half of your board since it is a salad after all :).
I opted for separate containers for the ground beef and Nacho Cheese Doritos. Mostly because I ran out of room, but you could certainly incorporate them into your Doritos Taco Salad Board.
To pre-crush your Doritos or not? I chose not to because I don’t want sad crushed-up chip leftovers. But making your guests crush their own Doritos poses the challenge of cheesy hands. I say don’t forget to include napkins.
While this recipe sticks with the ingredients I grew up enjoying in taco salads (like ground beef, Doritos chips, and black olives), you can - and certainly should - get creative with your Taco Salad Bar. Here are a few ingredient suggestions:
Ground or shredded chicken - instead of or in addition to ground beef
Ground or shredded pork - instead of or in addition to ground beef
Shredded beef - instead of or in addition to ground beef
Sauteed portobello mushrooms - a great vegetarian-friendly option
Corn - sweet pops of corn are great in a taco salad
Red onions - for an acerbic pop
Banana peppers - go for mild or hot or serve both kinds
If you want to serve up a taco salad bar on a charcuterie board like I did, get yourself one! You'll also need a few small serving bowls to keep things nice and organized.
Suggested Condiments to Serve with a Taco Salad Bar
Like this recipe? Try these Tasty Taco Recipes:
- Chicken Bacon Ranch Tacos
- Leftover Pulled Pork Tacos
- Crispy Air Fryer Tacos
- Chorizo Street Tacos
- Green Eggs and Spam Tacos
- Ground Venison Tacos
Taco Salad Bar
Equipment
- Charcuterie board
- 7 small condiment bowls
- 2 medium-sized serving bowls
- 2 small pourable containers
- Tongs
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 2 1 ounce packages taco seasoning
- 3 heads Romaine lettuce chopped
- 1 15.5 ounce can pinto beans
- 1 9 ¾ ounce bag Nacho Cheese Doritos
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 1 small yellow onion finely diced
- 1 green bell pepper finely diced
- 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 cup pickled jalapenos
- 2 2.25 ounce cans sliced black olives
- 1 cup Catalina or French dressing
- 1 cup Crema
Instructions
- Cook 2 pounds of ground beef over medium heat, using a wooden spoon to break into small pieces as it cooks.2 pounds ground beef
- Add 2 (1 ounce) packages of taco seasoning to the cooking ground beef. Stir to combine.2 1 ounce packages taco seasoning
- Continue cooking until the beef is fully cooked, around 8 minutes.
- Remove the beef from heat. Once cooled, strain off any excess grease.
- Add the pinto beans, halved cherry tomatoes, diced onion, diced bell pepper, sliced black olives, pickled jalapenos, and cheddar cheese to small individual bowls. Add crema and Catalina or French dressing to pourable containers.1 15.5 ounce can pinto beans, 1 pint cherry tomatoes, 1 small yellow onion, 1 green bell pepper, 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese, 2 2.25 ounce cans sliced black olives, 1 cup Catalina or French dressing, 1 cup Crema, 1 cup pickled jalapenos
- Get creative! Arrange the bowls as you’d like on a charcuterie board. Then, fill in the remaining areas with chopped Romaine lettuce.3 heads Romaine lettuce
- Add the taco-seasoned ground beef to a medium-sized bowl to serve alongside the charcuterie board. Pour the Nacho Cheese Doritos into a bowl or onto a plate or leave ‘em in the bag!1 9 ¾ ounce bag Nacho Cheese Doritos
- Serves 8 lucky people.
Notes
Nutrition
Leave a Reply